Chap. VII. CELLS OF THE HIVE-BEE. 231 



position — that is, along the plane of intersection between 

 two adjoining spheres. I have several specimens show- 

 ing clearly that they can do this. Even in the rude 

 circumferential rim or wall of wax round a growing 

 comb, flexures may sometimes be observed, correspond- 

 ing in position to the planes of the rhombic basal plates 

 of future cells. But the rough wall of wax has in every 

 case to be finished off, by being largely gnawed away 

 on both sides. The manner in which the bees build is 

 curious ; they always make the first rough wall from ten 

 to twenty times thicker than the excessively thin finished 

 wall of the cell, which will ultimately be left. We shall 

 understand how they work, by supposing masons first to 

 pile up a broad ridge of cement, and then to begin cutting 

 it away equally on both sides near the ground, till a 

 smooth, very thin wall is left in the middle ; the masons 

 always piling up the cut-away cement, and adding fresh 

 cement, on the summit of the ridge. We shall thus 

 have a thin wall steadily growing upward ; but always 

 crowned by a gigantic coping. From all the cells, 

 both those just commenced and those completed, being 

 thus crowned by a strong coping of wax, the bees can 

 cluster and crawl over the comb without injuring the 

 delicate hexagonal walls, winch are only about one four- 

 hundredth of an inch in thickness ; the plates of the 

 pyramidal basis being about twice as thick. By this sin- 

 gular manner of building, strength is continually given 

 to the comb, with the utmost ultimate economy of wax. 

 It seems at first to add to the difficulty of understand- 

 ing how the cells are made, that a multitude of bees all 

 work together ; one bee after working a short time at 

 one cell going to another, so that, as Huber has stated, 

 a score of individuals work even at the commencement 

 of the first cell. I was able practically to show this 

 fact, by covering the edges of the hexagonal walls 



