Chap. VII. 
CELLS OF THE HIVE-BEE. 
231 
a part excavation plays in the construction of the cells; 
but it would be a great error to suppose that the bees 
cannot build up a rough wall of wax in the proper 
position—that is, along the plane of intersection between 
two adjoining spheres. I have several specimens shovf- 
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 flnished ofl*, 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, which 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 difiSculty 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, 
