84 TREATISE ON THE 
ing, as they do, the cell’s capacity, and ex- 
citing, by their strong smell, the attacks of 
moths and other enemies. The number of 
linings found adhering to a cell, and which 
may be-disjoined by soaking the comb in 
water, indicates the number of Bees to which 
it has been the birth-place. The Bee, thus 
stripped of its silken envelop, and having all 
its parts unfolded by degrees, and changed, 
through a succession of colors, from a dull 
white to black, arrives at the state of a per- 
fect insect on the 20th day, counting from the 
time the egg is laid. She then eagerly com- 
-mences the operation of cutting through, 
with her mandibles, the cover of her cell, 
and in half an hour succeeds in escaping 
from her prison. On quitting her cradle, 
she appears, for a few seconds, drowsy and 
listless, but soon assumes the agility natural 
to the race, and on the same day on which 
she has emerged from her prison, sets out 
with her seniors to engage in the labors of 
the field. Some of the ancient bee-masters 
enlarge on the attention paid by the seniors 
