liment, and rearing them in the largest cells. You
will remember, that M. de Reaumur's sentiments are very different: "The
mother should lay, and she does lay, eggs from which flies fit for being
mothers must in their turn proceed. She does so; and it is evident the
workers know what she is to do. Bees, to which the mother is so
precious, seem to take a peculiar interest in the eggs that one is to
proceed from, and to consider them of the greatest value. They construct
particular cells where they are to be deposited.--The figure of a royal
cell only begun, very much resembles a cup, or, more correctly speaking,
the cup that has lost its acorn."

M. de Reaumur, though he did not suspect the possibility of a common
worm being converted into a queen, conceived that the queen bee laid a
particular species of eggs in the royal cells, from which worms should
come that would be queens. According to M. Schirach, on the other hand,
bees always having the power of procuring a queen by bringing up worms
three days old in a particular manner, it would be needless for nature
to grant females the faculty of laying royal eggs. Such prodigality is,
in his eyes, inconsistent with the ordinary laws of nature. Therefore he
maintains, in direct terms, that she does not lay royal eggs in cells
purposely prepared to receive them. He considers the royal cells only as
common ones, enlarged by the bees at the moment when the included worm
is destined for a queen; and adds, that the royal cell would always be
too long for the belly of the mother to reach the bottom.

I admit that M. de Reaumur no where says he has seen the queen lay in
the royal cell. However he did not doubt the fact; and, after all my
observations, I must esteem his opinion just. It is quite certain that,
at particular periods of the year, the bees prepare royal cells; that
the females deposit their eggs in them; and that worms, which shall
became queens, proceed from these eggs.

M. Schirach's objection, concerning the length of the cells, proves
nothing; for the queen does not delay depositing her egg till they are
finished. While only sketched and shaped like the cup of an acorn, she
lays it. This naturalist, dazzled by the brilliancy of his discovery,
saw only part of the truth. He was the first to find out the resource
granted to bees by nature, for repairing the loss of their queen; and
too soon persuaded himself that she had provided no other resource for
the producti