CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE COMBS. 



PAGE 



The construction of the combs the first act of a swarm — 

 Propolis and wax the same substances — Commosis and 

 pissoceros, two substances in a hive mentioned by Pliny — 

 Bees on leaving the hive prepared with the means for the 

 construction of the combs — The combs always begun at 

 the top of a hive — Description of the formation of a cell 

 given by Huber — Its falsity — The ovarium of the queen 

 bee on leaving the hive full of eggs — Perfection of the 

 architecture of the bees — Beautiful construction of a cell 

 — The combs composed of double rows of cells— The cells 

 of the common bee a perfect hexagon — Mathematical 

 analysis of a comb by Samuel Koenig — Variety in the 

 thickness of the combs — Description of the queen cell — 

 Weight of the queen cell compared with that of the com- 

 mon bees — Representation of the cells of the common 

 bee, the drone, and the queen — Latreille on the structure 

 of a comb — Combs when first made are white — Vicinity 

 of manufacturing towns injurious to the colour of the 

 combs — The whitest combs made, according to L'Abbe 

 della Rocca, of the farina of thyme — Falsity of the state- 

 ment — Concluding remarks 333 



CHAPTER XV. 



ON THE BROOD OF THE BEES. 



The common bees endowed with the instinct of knowing the 

 time when the queen will begin to lay her eggs — Arrange- 

 ment of the eggs in the ovarium of the queen — Advan- 

 tages of that arrangement — The queen on laying her eggs 

 attended, according to Huber, by a body guard — Singular 

 offices performed by the body guard— Manner of laying 

 the eggs by the queen— The eggs hatched in three days — 

 Progress of the worm to maturity— Method adopted by 

 the young bee to extricate itself from the cell— Conduct of 

 the old bees towards the young ones— The irascibility of 

 the bees, the criterion of the quantity of brood in a hive 

 —Question discussed as to the nature of the food ad- 

 ministered to the larvae— Various opinions concerning it 

 —No food whatever is administered to the larvEe— Opinion 

 of Ducouedic on the subject— Hypothesis of Huber— Its 

 principles investigated— The administration of food to the 

 larvfe acknowledged by several writers— Its physical ob 



