258 C. H. TURNER. 



least in any such all-sufficient degree as commonly held), despite 

 its logical character (in light of our knowledge of the nearly 

 limitless capacity for modification of natural selection) and the 

 abundant confirmatory evidence. 



"Most of the experimental evidence so far offered is that in- 

 cluded in Darwin's account ('On the Fertilization of Flowers by 

 Insects'); in Lubbock's account of his experiments on honey- 

 bees, familiar because of its presentation in his readable book, 

 'Ants, Bees and Wasps'; and in Plateau's account of his more 

 recent but less familiarly known experiments with various insects 

 including bees. Both Lubbock and Plateau are investigators 

 ingenious in device, keen in deduction, and of unquestioned 

 scientific honesty. Yet their conclusions are a direct contradic- 

 tion. Lubbock believes that bees recognize colors at a consider- 

 able distance, that they 'prefer one color to another, and that 

 blue is distinctly their favorite.' Plateau finds that neither the 

 form nor the brilliant colors of flowers seem to have any important 

 attractive role, 'as insects visit flowers whose colors and forms 

 are masked by green leaves, as well as to continue to visit flowers 

 which have been almost totally denuded of colored parts' ; that 

 insects show no preference or antipathy for different colors which 

 flowers of different varieties of the same or of allied species 

 may show; that flowers concealed by foliage are readily dis- 

 covered and visited; that insects ordinarily pay no attention 

 to flowers artificially made of colored paper or of cloth whether 

 these artifacts are provided or not with honey, while, on the 

 contrary, flowers artificially made of living green leaves and pro- 

 vided with honey are visited (from the attraction of the 'natural 

 vegetable odor'). From these observations Plateau concludes 

 that 'insects are guided with certainty to flowers with pollen or 

 nectar by a sense other than that of vision and which can only be 

 that of smell,' and finds particular proof of this in the facts, ac- 

 cording to his observations, (i) that insects tend, without hesita- 

 tion, towards flowers usually neglected by reason of the absence 

 or poverty of nectar, from the moment that one supplies these 

 flowers with artificial nectar, represented by honey; (2) that 

 insects cease their visits when one cuts out the nectary without 

 injuring the colored parts, and re-begin their visit if one replaces 



