. The Worker 143 



size of the cells they are building and with no apparent 

 order or design create a fabric marvellous for order and 

 design. 



Each inner cell when finished is a six-sided hollow prism, 

 open at one end and closed at the other. No cell stands 

 alone ; excepting on the edges of the comb, each is sur- 

 rounded by six others, and the walls of each are common 

 to the adjoining cells. 



The walls, although so thin, are water-tight, so that the 

 enclosed nectar cannot pass from one cell to another. 



The comb of the hive-bee is two cells deep, the cells 

 standing end to end and opening on opposite sides of the 

 sheet of comb, each cell thus being easily accessible. 



In order that the honey may be the more readily re- 

 tained the cells slant up a little and in addition are slightly 

 curved. The partition X-Y, be- 

 tween the two sets of cells, is ,~^ X 

 heavier than the side walls, and as 

 the bottom of each cell is concave 

 on the inside, the cells on opposite 

 sides of the comb do not stand 

 base to base, but the base of one 



is so placed that the slanting walls of the bases of the 

 opposite cells form its concavity. Thus upon 

 looking down into an empty cell, the edges of 

 three or sometimes four others are seen crossing 

 back of its transparent base. Thus is greatly 

 strengthened the bases which form the division wall be- 

 tween the two sets of cells. 



Bees do not place themselves in orderly ranks and work 

 away each at its own cell, but each bee as it were compre- 

 hends the design of a honey-comb in a cake of wax and 

 each contributes its share of labor to the whole without 

 any apparent regard to law and order. 



