The Life of the Bee 
other. Take a finished comb to the light, 
fix your eyes on the diaphanous wax ; you 
will see, most clearly designed, an entire 
network of sharply cut prisms, a whole 
system of concordances so infallible that 
one might almost believe them to be 
stamped on steel. 
I wonder whether those who never have 
seen the interior of a hive can form an ade- 
quate conception of the arrangement and 
aspect of thecombs. Let them imagine— 
we will take a peasant’s hive, where the bee 
is left entirely to its own resources — let 
them imagine a dome of straw or osier, 
divided from top to bottom by five, six, 
eight, sometimes ten, strips of wax, resemb- 
ling somewhat great slices of bread, that run 
in strictly parallel lines from the top of 
the dome to the floor, espousing closely 
the shape of the ovoid walls. Between 
these strips is contrived a space of about 
half an inch, to enable the bees to stand 
14 209 
