The Life of the Bee 
patent to any one who may gather a 
swarm into a glass hive. 
We have to admit, first of all, that we 
know not yet by what process of alchemy 
the honey transforms itself into wax in 
the enigmatic bodies of our suspended 
bees. We can only say that they will 
remain thus suspended for a period ex- 
tending from eighteen to twenty-four 
hours, in a temperature so high that one 
might almost believe that a fire was burn- 
ing in the hollow of the hive; and then 
white and transparent scales will appear 
at the opening of four little pockets that 
every bee has underneath its abdomen. 
When the bodies of most of those 
who form the inverted cone have thus 
been adorned with ivory tablets, we shall 
see one of the bees, as though suddenly 
inspired, abruptly detach herself from the 
mass, and climb over the backs of the 
passive crowd till she reach the inner 
. 182 
