“So it is, then, in the hexagonal form, or form with six sides, that the cells can occupy, collectively, the least space, use the least wax, and hold the most honey. Bees, knowing these things better than any one else, make hexagonal cells, never any other kind.” “Then bees have reason,” remarked Claire, “like ours; even superior, if they can solve such problems?” “If bees constructed their cells after a premeditated, considered, calculated plan, it would be something alarming, my dear child: animals would rival man. Bees are profound geometricians because they work, unconsciously, under the inspiration of the sublime Geometrician. Let us stop this talk, which I fear you have not wholly understood; but, at any rate, I have opened your eyes to one of the greatest wonders of this world.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER LXXIX HONEY “THE bee is diligent: at sunrise it is at work, far from the hive, visiting the flowers one by one. You already know what it is in flowers that attracts insects: I have told you about the nectar, that sweet liquor that oozes out at the bottom of the corolla to entice the little winged people and make them shake the anthers on the stigma. This nectar is what the bee wants. It is its great feast, the great feast also of the little ones and the queen-mother; it is the prime ingredient of honey. How carry home a liquid so that others may enjoy it? The bee possesses neither pitcher, jar, pot, nor anything of the sort. I am wrong: like the ant that carries the plant-lice’s milk to the workers, it is provided with a natural can, stomach, paunch, or crop. “The bee enters a flower, plunges to the bottom of the corolla a long and flexible trunk, a kind of tongue that laps the sweet liquor. Droplet by droplet, drawn from this flower and that, the crop is filled. The bee at the same time nibbles a few grains of pollen. Moreover, it proposes to carry a good load of it to the hive. It has special utensils for this work: first, the down of its body, then the brushes and baskets that its legs supply. The down and the brushes are used for harvesting; the baskets for carrying.