COMB. 95 



" Thus, filtered through yon nutterer's folded mall, 

 Clings the cooled wax, and hardens to a scale. 

 Swift, at the well-known call, the ready train 

 (For not a buz boon Nature breathes in vain) 

 Spring to each falling flake, and bear along 

 Their glossy burdens to the builder throng. 

 These with sharp sickle, or with sharper tooth, 

 Pare each excrescence, and each angle smoothe, 

 Till now, in finish'd pride, two radiant rows 

 Of snow white cells one mutual base disclose. 

 Six shining panels gird each polish'd round; 

 The door's fine rim, with waxen flUet bound; 

 While walls so thin, with sister walls combined, 

 Weak in themselves, a sure dependence find." 



Evans. 



210. The cells of bees are found to fulfill perfectly the 

 most subtle conditions of an intricate mathematical problem. 



Let it be required to find what shape a given quantity of 

 matter must take, in order to have the greatest capacity 

 and strength^ occupying, at the same time, the least space, 

 and consuming the least labor in its construction. When 

 this problem is solved by the most refined mathematical 

 processes, the answer is the hexagonal or six-sided cell of 

 the honey-bee, with its three four-sided figures at the base ! 



The shape of these figures cannot be altered ever so lit- 

 tle, except for the worse. 



211. The bottom of each cell is formed of three lozenges, 

 the latter forming one third of the base of three opposite 

 cells. 



" If the little lozenge plates were square, we should have the 

 same arrangement, but the bottom would be too sharp pointed as 

 it were, to use wax with the best econom}',or to best accommodate 

 the body of the infantile bee. Should we, on the contrary, make 

 the lozenge a little longer, we should have the bottom of the cell 

 too nearly flat to use wax with most economy, or for the comfort 

 of the young bee." (A. I. Root, "A. B. C. of Bee Culture.") 



212. "There are only three possible figures of the cells," 

 says Dr. Eeid, " which can make them all equal and similar. 



