The Hornets are distinguished from other wasps by their great size. They make their nests in the trunks of old trees, perforating the sound wood to arrive at the heart, which is rotten, or hollowing for themselves a hole, which they clear out by the gallery which leads to it. In this hole they construct first a dome suspended to the top by a footstalk; then a series of combs composed of cells, hanging the first to this dome, the second to the first, and so on, by stalks or pillars of a paper-like substance. When fixed under roofs, these insects have often the form of an elongated pear. Fig. 352 represents one of these nests, after Réaumur. The societies of hornets contain fewer members than those of the common wasp; at most 200 insects. [Illustration: Fig. 352.--Hanging Hornet's Nest.] The _Polistes_ are a peculiar kind of wasp, smaller than the others, slender, with the abdomen tapering towards the base. The construction of their nests is more simple, having no envelopes, as shown in Fig. 353. They attach them to the stems of broom, furze, or other shrubs, by a footstalk, or pedicle. They are like little paper bouquets, composed of from twenty to thirty cells, grouped in circle. [Illustration: Fig. 353.--Nest of _Polistes gallica_.] [Illustration: Fig. 354.--The Card-making Wasp (_Chartergus nidulans_).] The Card-making Wasp of Cayenne (_Chartergus nidulans_, Fig. 354) is a consummate artist. Its nest represents a sort of box or bag, made of a substance resembling cardboard, so fine and so white that the best worker in that material would be deceived by it. This nest has only one single hole at its base; each of the combs it contains is likewise pierced by a hole in its centre, to afford a passage to the wasps. In an architectural point of view, the card-making wasp is almost superior to the bee, for the latter does not _build_ its house, it only _furnishes_ it, as Latreille remarks with truth. The Brazilian species of _Chartergus_, which the inhabitants call Lecheguana,[103] manufactures a honey, the use of which is not without danger, as it occasions vertigo and sharp pains in the stomach. The naturalist, Auguste Saint-Hilaire, during his sojourn in Brazil, himself experienced ill effects from eating it. [103] Hence the scientific name, _Chartergus lecheguana_.--ED.