Curiosities & wonders > New observations on the natural history of bees

370 ARCHITECTURE OF BEES.
opposite face of the comb allowed the bees
to construct a vertical margin behind the
same cell, which could result only from com¬
mencing a new cavity on each side of that
margin; hut it being established, a bee be¬
gan to excavate the bottom of the space re¬
ferred to, still rough, and formed a furrow
also vertical in the middle, running from
the upper angle of the lozenge to the upper
angle of the hexagon. The two pieces, re¬
sulting from the division, being smoothed,
we observed that they constituted two
new lozenges, f e r m, and e r b p, equal to
the preceding lozenge f c b e. Thus the
six margins of the hexagonal outline sur¬
rounded three equal sized lozenges, that is,
a complete pyramidal bottom.
The first bottom of this kind was con¬
structed on the posterior face of the block;
and, during all these operations, cells were
sketched in the same manner to right and
left. Meantime the wax workers were en¬
larging the block, which the punctuated line,
in fig. 43, shows to have been still inade¬
quate during the construction of the poste¬
rior cell of the second row, but it was large
enough for new cells of this row, when they
commenced the anterior hexagonal cell.