190 
WAX AND COMB CONSTRUCTION. 
than those of worker brood, and the domes are braced 
to each other by wax girders. 
And now that our task is ended, if the reader has 
carefully followed us, he will be impressed by the 
wonderful economy of the hive. Wherever we investi- 
gate the wonderful works of Nature we find the most 
beautiful adaptation and arrangement in correlation of 
structure and function. Nor have we seen it to be 
otherwise with bees. We have learned that there are 
three different sorts of bees composing a hive : a queen., 
the mother of the hive ; numerous workers^ or unde- 
veloped females ; and dro7ies., or males. In speaking 
of the queen as the ‘ mother,’ we have borrowed a 
German expression, and a most suitable one it is, for 
she deposits the eggs from which (in a normal state) 
all the inhabitants of the hive proceed. These eggs, 
all alike in appearance, laid in different cells produce 
males or females according to the size of the cell, and 
in consequence of a wonderful mechanical adaptation 
are fertilised or not, apparently at the will of the 
queen, and it is one of the mysteries of the hive how 
a queen knows where and when to deposit each par- 
ticular kind of egg. Just as in various stages of in- 
fancy, the human being requires and receives a modi- 
fication of his food, so we find the larvae of bees are 
treated by the nurses much after the same fashion. 
The division of labour, is another of those adaptations 
which deserve our admiration, and we cannot but be 
struck by the complexity and wonderful perfection in 
structure of the various organs adapted to their 
