Page - 280 - in The Origin of Species
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280 ORIGIN OF SPECIES
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 it 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 ceil stands in close
relation to the presence of adjoining cells; and the follow-
ing view may, perhaps, be considered only as a modification
of his theory. Let us look to the great principle of grada-
tion, 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.
At the other end of the series we have the cells of the hive-
bee, placed in a double layer: each cell, as is well known,
is an hexagonal prism, with the basal edges of its six sides
bevelled so as to join an inverted pyramid, of three rhombs.
These rhombs have certain angles, and the three which form
the pyramidal base of a single cell on one side of the comb
enter into the composition of the bases of three adjoining
cells on the opposite side. In the series between the extreme
perfection of the cells of the hive-bee and the simplicity of
those of the humble-bee we have the cells of the Mexican
Melipona domestica, carefully described and figured by Pierre
Hwber. The Melipona itself is intermediate in structure be-
tween the hive and humble-bee, but more nearly related to
the latter
; it forms a nearly regular waxen comb of cylin-
drical cells, in which the young are hatched, and, in addi-
tion, some large cells of wax for holding honey. These
latter cells are nearly spherical and of nearly equal sizes, and
are aggregated into an irregular mass. But the important
point to notice is, that these cells are always made at that
degree of nearness to each other that they would have inter-
sected or broken into each other if the spheres had been
back to the
book The Origin of Species"
The Origin of Species
- Title
- The Origin of Species
- Author
- Charles Darwin
- Publisher
- P. F. Collier & Son
- Location
- New York
- Date
- 1909
- Language
- English
- License
- PD
- Size
- 10.5 x 16.4 cm
- Pages
- 568
- Keywords
- Evolutionstheorie, Evolution, Theory of Evolution, Naturwissenschaft, Natural Sciences
- Categories
- International
- Naturwissenschaften Biologie
Table of contents
- EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 5
- AN HISTORICAL SKETCH of the Progress of Opinion on the Origin of Species 9
- INTRODUCTION 21
- Variation under Domestication 25
- Variation under Nature 58
- Struggle for Existence 76
- Natural Selection; or the Survival of the Fittest 93
- Laws of Variation 145
- Difficulties of the Theory 178
- Miscellaneous Objections to the Theory of Natural Selection 219
- Instinct 262
- Hybridism 298
- On the Imperfection of the Geological Record 333
- On the Geological Succession of Organic Beinss 364
- Geographical Distribution 395
- Geographical Distribution - continued 427
- Mutual Affinities of Organic Beings: Morphology: Embryology: Rudimentary Organs 450
- Recapitulation and Conclusion 499
- GLOSSARY 531
- INDEX 541