2o8 THE LORE OF THE HONEY-BEE 



is strengthened throughout by a triple girdering. 

 The result is that the amount of wax required in 

 the construction of the comb can be everywhere 

 reduced to an absolute minimum. It becomes 

 merely a question of what thickness of wax will 

 retain the honey ; and this experience proves to 

 be no more than ^i;^ part of an inch. The whole 

 thing, indeed, might very well be taken as an 

 ideal exemplar of the triumph of mind over 

 matter. 



The geometric principles brought into play in 

 the construction of honey-comb have been a 

 favourite study with mathematicians of all ages, 

 and especially this rhombiform method adopted 

 by the bee in flooring her cells. The rhomb is 

 best described as a plane-figure whose four sides 

 are equal, like those of a square, but whose angles 

 are not right angles. In such a figure there are 

 necessarily two greater angles and two smaller, 

 facing each other in pairs. The three rhombs 

 composing the base of the honey-cell lean together, 

 as has been seen, in the form of a blunt pyramid ; 

 and — treating all angles as negligible factors — the 

 bluntness of this pyramid is found to coincide very 

 aptly with the shape of the full-grown larvae. But 

 this is not the only reason for the particular 

 inclination given by the bee to the rhombs forming 

 the base of each cell. Economy rules here, as in 

 everything else she undertakes; and the truth that 

 she has chosen the one and only form of cell-base 



