. The honey bee; its natural history, physiology, and management. ngthened by coin-cidence with others. The bottom of each cellrests upon three partitions of opposite cells, fromwhich it receives a great accession of strength. As it is desirable that the reader shouldthoroughly comprehend this subject, I will re-state it in other words.—The partition whichseparates the two opposmg rows of cells, andwhich occupies, of course, the middle distancebetween their two surfaces, is not a plane but acollection of rhombs, there being three at thebottom of each cell: the three together form inshape a fla
. The honey bee; its natural history, physiology, and management. ngthened by coin-cidence with others. The bottom of each cellrests upon three partitions of opposite cells, fromwhich it receives a great accession of strength. As it is desirable that the reader shouldthoroughly comprehend this subject, I will re-state it in other words.—The partition whichseparates the two opposmg rows of cells, andwhich occupies, of course, the middle distancebetween their two surfaces, is not a plane but acollection of rhombs, there being three at thebottom of each cell: the three together form inshape a flattened pyramid, the basis of which isturned towards the mouth of the cell ; each cellis in form therefore an hexagonal prism, termi-nated by a flattened trihedral pyramid, the threesides of which pyramid are rhombs, that meet atthe apex by their obtuse angles. The plates un-derneath, represent the opposite surfaces of thepyramidal bases of adjoining cells, and will, I 346 ARCHITECTURE OF BEES. trust, enable the reader to understand the fore-going The union of the lozenges in one point, in ad-dition to the support which it is the means ofaffording to the three partitions between opposingcells, is also admirably adapted to receive thelittle egg and to concentrate the heat necessaryfor its incubation. Each obtuse angle of the lozenges or rhombsforms an angle of about 110°, and each acute one,an angle of about 70°. M. Maraldi found bymensuration that the angles of these rhombswhich compose the base of a cell, amounted to109° 28 and 70° 32; and the ftmious mathe-matician KoENiG, pupil of the celebrated Ber-nouilli, having been employed for that purposeby M. Reaumur, has clearly shown, by the me-thod of infinitesimals, that the quantity of theseangles, using the least possible wax, in a cell ofthe same capacity, should contain 109° 2G and ARCHITECTURE OF BEES. oi7 70° 34. This was confirmed by the celebratedMr. MLaurin, who very justly observes, thatthe bees do
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