LETTERS ON ENTOMOLOGY. 59 
serve them as well. You must have seen a honey- 
comb, and observed that it is a flattish cake, com- 
posed of a vast number of cells, mostly hexagonal, 
regularly applied side by side, and placed in two 
layers end to end. Several of these combs are 
fixed to the upper part and sides of the hive, at 
the distance of about half an inch from each 
other. Besides these vacancies, which are the 
high roads, there are cavities pierced through 
the combs, that they may not lose time by going 
round. If bees only constructed cells of in- 
variable size and arrangement, it would still be 
a matter of admiration ; but they do more. If 
forced by artificial means to bend their comb, 
they take the best means of doing it ; they en- 
large the mouths of the cells on the convex side, 
and diminish them on the other. A little re- 
flection will show you the beauty and ingenuity 
4 of this contrivance, particularly as it is an ad- 
ventitious circumstance, which in their natural 
state would rarely, if ever, happen. 
The cells are of different dimensions, as the 
society consists of three orders differing in size. 
The cells for the male larvae are much larger than 
those belonging to the workers. The queen's 
cell is still larger, and diners in form, being 
shaped like a pear, and made of a coarser ma- 
