Page - 284 - in The Origin of Species
Image of the Page - 284 -
Text of the Page - 284 -
284 ORIGIN OF SPECIES
bees had excavated too quickly, and convex on the opposed
side where the bees had worked less quickly. In one well
marked instance, I put the comb back into the hive, and
allowed the bees to go on working for a short time, and
again examined the cell, and I found that the rhombic plate
had been completed, and had become perfectly flat: it was
absolutely impossible, from the extreme thinness of the little
plate, that they could have effected this by gnawing away
the convex side
; and I suspect that the bees in such cases
stand on opposite sides and push and bend the ductile and
warm wax (which as I have tried is easily doiic) into its
proper intermediate plane, and thus flatten it.
From the experiment of the ridge of vermilion wax we
can see that, if the bees were to build for themselves a thin
wall of wax, they could make their cells of the proper shape,
by standing at the proper distance from each other, by exca-
vating at the same rate, and by endeavouring to make equal
spherical hollows, but never allowing the spheres to break
into each other. Now bees, as may be clearly seen by exam-
ining the edge of a growing comb, do make a rough, circum-
ferential wall or rim all round the comb
; and they gnaw this
away from the opposite sides, always working circularly as
they deepen each cell. They do not make the whole three-
sided pyramidal base of any one cell at the same time, but
only that one rhombic plate which stands on the extreme
growing margin, or the two plates, as the case may be; and
they never complete the upper edges of the rhombic plates,
until the hexagonal walls are commenced. Some of these
statements differ from those made by the justly celebrated
elder Huber, but I am convinced of their accuracy; and if
I had space, I could show that they are conformable with
my theory.
Ruber's statement, that the very first cell is excavated out
of a little parallel-sided wall of wax, is not, as far as I have
seen, strictly correct; the first commencement having always
been a little hood of wax; but I will not here enter on de-
tails. We see how important a part excavation plays in the
construction of the cells; but it would be a great error to
suppose that the bees cannot build up a rough wall of wax in
the proper position—that is, along the plane of intersection
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