108 
Psyche 
[June-Sept. 
served without distortion, or many other fragile structures 
of plants and animals equally well-preserved, need no fur- 
ther persuasion that fragility of the original object is neces- 
sarily a bar to perfect preservation provided other condi- 
tions are right. 
Bequaert and Carpenter remark about the regularity and 
perfection of preservation of all the cells in the fossil, and 
suggest that, in view of the fragility of paper nests such 
regularity would seem impossible to be attained ; and that if 
only a few cells were so preserved the identification of the 
fossil as a wasp nest would seem more plausible. The 
answer to this contention is that the fossil is apparently 
only a small portion of what was very probably a large nest 
and that it represents a protected portion which escaped 
injury and disintegration during the process of getting en- 
tombed in the sediments. I have had part of a nest of 
Polistes in water for some days now and, although water- 
logged, it still retains its shape and can with care be handled 
without much distortion, especially of the cells several rows 
inward from the margin. 
Comparing the fossil with nests of living wasps Bequaert 
and Carpenter allege a number of discrepancies. Some of 
these criticisms are in part well-taken, but all seem to rest 
on the assumption that primitive social wasps had nest- 
building habits that must have been exactly like those of 
living wasps. Such a rigid interpretation of the law of 
uniformity, although perhaps applicable to inorganic proc- 
esses, does not seem appropriate for organisms. Without 
variation there can be no evolution of organisms or their 
habits. 
In the fossil the dome-shaped projections representing 
the bottoms of the cells are arranged in parallel rows in 
three different directions. In the nests of living wasps, 
however, according to Bequaert and Carpenter, although the 
open ends of the cells may show such regular arrangement, 
the bottoms or closed ends are irregularly arranged, par- 
ticularly as may be seen when the paper cover is removed. 
In all nests I have examined the paper surface covering the 
bottoms of the cells displays parallel rows of cells in three 
different directions with the same degree of regularity as 
the open ends of the cells. This is well-illustrated by figures 
