In the Old Museum at the Royal Gardens, Kew, may be seen a Taylor's glass presented by us, some of the combs in which are elongated on the outside to the breadth of six inches. We believe that not only does a glass present a much handsomer appearance when thus worked—and will, on that account, most fully reward the trouble of fixing guide comb—but that more honey is stored in the same space and in less time than if the glass be placed on the hive merely in a naked condition for the bees to follow their own devices.
This mode of fixing guide comb does not solely apply to this shaped glass, but is equally useful for all kinds of glasses. It is introduced in connection with No. 28, because that glass having a flat top and no knob, the regularity is more clearly apparent.
The working of bees in the bell glasses illustrates how tractable their disposition really is if only scope be allowed for the due exercise of their natural instinct. They have no secrets in their economy, and they do not shrink from our constant observation as they daily pursue their simple policy of continuous thrift and persevering accumulation. Yet it is only owing to the labours of successive inventors that we are now enabled to watch "the very pulse of the machine" of the bee-commonwealth:—
"Long from the eye of man and face of day,
Involved in darkness all their customs lay,
Until a sage well versed in Nature's lore,
A genius formed all science to explore;
Hives well contrived, in crystal frames disposed.
And there the busy citizens disclosed."—Murphy's Vaniere.