CHAPTER XI. 



SECRETION OF WAX, AND BEE ARCHITECTURE. 



Reaumur's Hypothesis— The Discovery — Dr. J. Hunter 

 — Frangois Huber and Burnens — Wax Pockets — 

 Wax-yielding Membrane — Queen and Drone — 

 Microscopic Examination — The True Gland: Its 

 Structure — Wax at First a Fluid — Wax Scales — 

 Wax of Comb — Wax Produced from Saccharine 

 Substances, not Pollen — Huber 's Experiments — 

 Comb Building Exhausting — The Behaviour of a 

 Swarm — Conditions Favourable to Producing Fat 

 and Wax — Structure of Comb — Model Making — ■ 

 Cramer's Demonstration — Angles — Economy in 

 Space — Equality of Solid Angles — Maraldi's Calcu- 

 lation — Strange Myth — Bees Capable of Modifying 

 Comb — Suitability of Hexagons — Soap-bubble Ex- 

 periment — Costliness of Wax — Queen Cell — Covers 

 of Honey not Air-tight ; Why Irregular — Sizes 

 of Cells — Drone Cell Peculiarities — Breeding Cells 

 always Approaching the Ideal Form. 

 THE opinion formed by Swammerdam and Maraldi, 

 and accepted by Reaumur, that pollen, which he called 

 crude wax (page 16), was submitted to a peculiar 

 elaboration in the stomach of the bee, whence it was 



