The Life of the Bee 
with outlined cells. ‘These were less reg- 
ular, certainly, than those of an ordinary 
comb; wherefore the queen, having in- 
spected them, wisely declined to lay any 
eggs there, for the generation that would 
have arisen therefrom would necessarily 
have been deformed. [Each cell, how- 
ever, was a perfect hexagon; nor did it 
contain a single crooked line, a single 
curved figure or angle. ‘And yet the 
ordinary conditions had all been changed ; 
the cells had neither been scooped out of 
a block, according to Huber’s descrip- 
tion, nor had they been designed within a 
waxen hood, and, from being circular at 
first, been subsequently converted into 
hexagons by the pressure of adjoining 
cells, as explained by Darwin. Neither 
could there be question here of reciprocal 
obstacles, the cells having been formed 
one by one, and their first lines traced on 
what practically was a bare table. It would 
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