390 DISCOVERY OF HUBEB. 



men ; the process is completed, the festoon is broken up, 

 and the bees return to the hive. 



It must be particularly remarked, that this festoon is not 

 made in the hive, but exteriorly to it on a bunch of flowers, 

 and therefore Huber has left one material point untouched ; 

 which is, the precise time of the day when the wax-makers 

 congregate for the purpose of forming themselves into the 

 festoons on the flowers. It may be early in the morning or 

 late in the evening, at all events as twenty-four hours are re- 

 quired for the secretion of wax, the bees must therefore be 

 necessarily obliged to bivouac under the shelter of a sun- 

 flower or a dahlia until the light of the morning enables 

 them to find the way to their hive. 



We will however follow Huber in his further extraordinary 

 details, but previously we will quote a passage from his work, 

 to the truth of which we give our unqualified assent. The 



ARCHITECTURE OF THE BEES IS ALWAYS CONCEALED FROM 

 OUR VIEW BY CLUSTERS OF BEES, AMIDST WHICH, AND IN 



darkness, the works go on. In utter defiance, however, 

 of the verity of that affirmation, Huber actually gives us his 

 ocular observations of the manner in which the bees pro- 

 ceeded to make use of their secreted wax. After the twenty- 

 four hours had expired, for he unequivocally asserts that he 

 saw the curtain or festoon of wax-workers in the hive, and so 

 correct was his vision, that he made a drawing of it, an en- 

 graving of which decorates the pages of the Insect Archi- 

 tecture. To repeat, however, the words of Huber, " The 

 architecture of the bees is always concealed from our view," 

 and yet he has furnished us with a drawing of the bees laying 

 the foundation of a cell; one constructing the side, one on 

 its back, another on its belly, one on its right side, and an- 

 other on its left, all of which attitudes have given some em- 

 ployment to the wood-cutters engaged in the illustration of 

 the Insect Architecture, and are admirably calculated to 



