The Swarm 
that shall only be broken on days of su- 
preme distress, the honey of April is 
stored, most limpid and perfumed of all, 
wrapped round with long and magnificent 
embroidery of gold, whose borders hang 
stiff and rigid. Still lower the honey of 
May matures, in great open vats, by whose 
side watchful cohorts maintain an incessant 
current of air. In the centre, and far 
from the light whose diamond rays steal 
in through the only opening, in the 
warmest part of the hive, there stands the 
abode of the future; here does it sleep, 
and wake. For this is the royal domain 
of the brood-cells, set apart for the queen 
and her acolytes; about 10,000 cells 
wherein the eggs repose, 15,000 or 16,000 
chambers tenanted by larve, 40,000 dwel- 
lings inhabited by white nymphs to whom 
thousands of nurses minister. And fin- 
a The figures given here are scrupulously exact. 
They are those of a well-filled hive in full prosperity, 
4 49 
