It has been remarked that a skilful workman, with fitting tools and measures, would find it very difficult to make cells of wax of the true form, though this is effected by a crowd of bees working in a dark hive.

Granting whatever instincts you please, it seems at first quite inconceivable how they can make all the necessary angles and planes, or even perceive when they are correctly made.

But the difficulty is not nearly so great as at first appears: all this beautiful work can be shown, I think, to follow from a few simple instincts.
I was led to investigate this subject by Mr.Waterhouse, who has shown that the form of the cell stands in close relation to the presence of adjoining cells; and the following view may, perhaps, be considered only as a modification of his theory.

Let us look to the great principle of gradation, and see whether Nature does not reveal to us her method of work.

At one end of a short series we have humble-bees, which use their old cocoons to hold honey, sometimes adding to them short tubes of wax, and likewise making separate and very irregular rounded cells of wax.