distance from each other, by excavating at the same rate, and by
endeavouring to make equal spherical hollows, but never allowing the
spheres to break into each other. Now bees, as may be clearly seen by
examining the edge of a growing comb, do make a rough, circumferential
wall or rim all round the comb; and they gnaw into this from the
opposite sides, always working circularly as they deepen each cell. They
do not make the whole three-sided pyramidal base of any one cell at the
same time, but only the one rhombic plate which stands on the extreme
growing margin, or the two plates, as the case may be; and they never
complete the upper edges of the rhombic plates, until the hexagonal
walls are commenced. Some of these statements differ from those made by
the justly celebrated elder Huber, but I am convinced of their accuracy;
and if I had space, I could show that they are conformable with my
theory.

Huber's statement that the very first cell is excavated out of a little
parallel-sided wall of wax, is not, as far as I have seen, strictly
correct; the first commencement having always been a little hood of wax;
but I will not here enter on these details. We see how important 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 showing 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, corresponding
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 jus