WAX, AND BEE ARCHITECTURE. l6l 



production of the other. We put our poultry up to 

 fat in confinement, with partial light, to secure bodily 

 inactivity, we keep warm and feed highly. Our bees, 

 under Nature's teaching, put themselves up to yield 

 wax under conditions so parallel that the suitability 

 of the fatting-coop is vindicated. 



The wax having been secreted, a single bee starts 

 the first comb, by attaching to the roof little masses 

 of the plastic material, into which her scales are con- 

 verted, by prolonged chewing with secretion ; others 

 follow her example, and the processes of scooping 

 and thinning (presently to receive detailed attention) 

 commence, the parts removed being always added 

 to the edge of the work, so that, in the darkness, and 

 between the bees, grows downwards that wonderful 

 combination of lightness and strength, grace and 

 utility, which has so long provoked the wonder and 

 awakened the speculation of the philosopher, the 

 naturalist, and the mathematician. 



The comb (Figs. 3 and 4) is constructed on a middle 

 wall, or midrib (seen in the section at ab, A, Fig- 

 36), which forms the bases or ends of the layer of 

 cells (c, d) covering it on each side, and which are 

 hexagonal prisms, in length somewhat less than ^in. 

 The midrib B consists entirely of lozenges, or rhombs 

 (i.e., figures with four equal sides and two acute 

 and two obtuse angles), of which each cell covers 

 three, constituting its base, as may be seen by the 

 double line representing the cross section of the cell 

 sides. The rhombs so meet, with an obtuse angle of 

 each in the middle of the cell bottom, that their edges 

 cannot be joined whilst they lie flat, as their enlarged 



P 



