geometrical scholars to be the one which most perfectly accomplishes the results which I have specified. What an astonishing coincidence is this! Several celebrated mathematicians occupy themselves in solving an intricate problem, and, after the exercise of the highest ingenuity and the deepest thought, find their conclusions made manifest in the operations of the bee! Not only are the cells thus curiously constructed with the strictest regard, to the economy of space and materials, but so as to afford the utmost available degree of strength for though the cells are formed in doable rows, back to back, you will perceive, on examining the specimens before you, that no two cells are directly opposed to each other, but that every separate cell is fortified by having the walls of three others running across the bottom of it, and all three meeting in its centre! Such wonderful specimens of constructive skill in the bee, as well as in some other members of the insect race, might well have excited the astonishment of Solomon and have called forth the apostrophes of David, and have led him to exclaim, when contemplating them, "Marvellous are thy works, O God! in wisdom hast thou made them all!" I have given you a description of the curiously-constructed cells which constitute a honey-comb, and have told you what steps the bees take when they have to supply the loss of a queen. This gave me occasion to advert to one of the modes in which they prepare a royal cell. In such an emergency the usual mode of proceeding is departed from, the royal cradle being built round the egg or grab, and therefore having its site wherever that egg or grub may happen to be, not, therefore, upon the edge of a comb; whilst in the regular course of nature the royal cell is constructed, not where the egg has been laid, but where it is proposed that it shall be laid, and in that case always upon the edge of a comb, its dimensions increasing progressively, as the royal insect increases in size, and requires increased accommodation. This proceeding always commences a short time previous to the intended issue of a swarm. The wood-cut on the table will give a tolerable notion of the relative appearance of every description of cell, and in every state. At the top of the comb may be seen cells filled with honey and sealed over with _fattish_ waxen lids (specimens of which are afforded by the plate of stored honey-comb); somewhat lower down are cells containing brood in an advanced state, sealed over with convex lids; lower still are represented open cells, containing grubs in every state of progression, the whole being encompassed by open cells, ready to be occupied either with honey or brood, as may be required. There is also a specimen of a full-sized royal cell upon the table, in the state which precedes a queen's emergence from it; and likewise a half-finished cell of the same description. In the formation of the