in which state it is fed for about five days more, according to the temperature of the season; when it has increased so as to fill the cell, it is covered in by its nurses with a waxen lid. It now spins round itself a silken web, called a cocoon, in which it is occupied for about thirty-six hours. After this its various members become gradually developed, till, on the 21st day from the laying of the eggs it comes forth a winged insect. As respects the embryo queen, in her case every stage of the progression is shortened, and she is ready to emerge as a full-grown queen upon the sixteenth day. The progression of the drone is the slowest, four-and-twenty days being occupied before he arrives at maturity. In the respective periods of their adult existence, there is a still greater relative difference than in that of their embryo state. I have told you already that the length of life allotted to the working bee does not extend beyond six or eight months; that of the drone seldom exceeds four months, whilst the queen's life is usually extended to three or four years. It has been a question to what distance bees will fly when exploring the fields, and it has been ascertained that the usual extent of their flight from home is about a mile and a half; but if within that range they do not find what they seek for, they have been known to exceed more than double that distance. Having now presented you with a sketch of the history and physiology of the bee itself, I shall proceed to notice that miracle of insect architectural skill, a honey-comb, without which any lecture on its artificers would be very incomplete. A honey-comb is universally allowed to be one of the most striking achievements of insect industry, and a most admirable specimen of insect architecture. Every comb in a hive is composed of two ranges of cells backed against each other, and each cell is constructed with the strictest mathematical correctness. According as they are designed for the cradles of working bees or of drones, they vary somewhat in dimensions, but in each size the strictest uniformity is preserved. For storing honey both sizes are constructed and used indiscriminately; but for whatever purposes intended, one or other of those two sizes is invariably adhered to, and they are so contrived as to make them contain the greatest possible quantity in the smallest possible space, and with the smallest possible quantity of materials. Specimens of drone as well as of worker-cells, full and empty, are upon the table. On observing the full ones, it will be perceived that every cell is sealed over, so as to prevent the external air from having access to the honey; and this may serve as a hint to those who wish to preserve their honey in as pure a state as possible, that it should from first to last be as little exposed as possible to the external air. The cells are all of them of an hexagonal shape, that having been found by some of the profoundest