no 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



The columns are arranged so as to show the height, 

 colour, and duration of every plant in each list ; and 

 as the lists include both exotic and native species, it 

 will, I think, be a fair index to the actual proportion 

 of the several colours to be found in the floral world. 

 The first list contains 733 different kinds of seeds. 

 The colours I have arranged in descending sequence ; 

 they are as follows': 



129 red (crimson, scarlet, rose, &c.) 

 no white 



59 yellow 



57 blue 



56 purple 



17 orange 



IS blue and white 



15 red and white 

 4 violet 



146 various _ 



126 buff, maroon, mauve, spotted, striped, &c. 



733 



It will here be seen that red predominates, white 

 follows, whilst yellow and blue are on a nearly equal 

 footing.* Now, if we arrange these in the order of 

 primary and compound colours, it will at once be seen 

 that red is still greatly in the ascendency. 



Thus- 



Blue (primary) . . . 

 Purple (blue and red) 

 Red (primary) . . . . 

 Orange (red and yellow \ 

 Yellow (primary) . . . 



57 



56 



129 



17 

 59 



That is to say that, purple being composed of blue 

 and red, both these primaries are entitled to a 

 moiety each of purple — the same with red and 

 orange. Even if we add to each those flowers which 

 have red or blue disposed with white, the proportions 

 are not disturbed. In those plants classed under the 

 head "maroon," &c. &c., it will be found that reds 

 and yellows still more largely predominate. 



My second list embraces no fewer than one 

 thousand species ; but the definitions of the colours 

 therein are less amenable to classification than those 

 in list No. I, such terms as " reddish purple," 

 " purpHsh red," " orange yellow," being freely used. 

 However, upon carefully picking out such as are in 

 no sense ambiguous, I find that the proportions 

 approximate very closely to those in No. i list. For 

 instance, by rule of three. No. 2 should have yielded 

 70 blue: it actually, yielded 67; red should have 

 produced 176: it actually produced 153; whilst the 

 proportion of yellow again slightly increased, the 

 actual number being 88. It will thus be seen that, 

 of the primary colours, blue either comes third in 

 the scale, or is closely run by yellow. 



The hive bee, as is well known, gathers in its 

 harvest in the early part of the year, and (except 

 where heath abounds) the blossoming of the lime- 

 tree marks the close of its short season. Particularly 



• If we could separate the several colours classed under the 

 head "various," the result would almost certainly be the same. 



active is the busy creature when apple, pear^ 

 plum, cherry, &c. &c., are in full bloom. AlK 

 white ate these, most of them spotlessly so. Let 

 Nature spread her seductive blue deceptions as she 

 will, will the "azure-loving" worker forsake the 

 sweets stored up in the receptacles of the white for 

 those secreted in the blue ? I trow not ; far too 

 wise is she to neglect what is within her reach to- 

 pursue a profitless quest, because, to our eyes, 

 certain colours appear to be more attractive, gleam 

 they with the effulgence of the setting sun, or the 

 softly resplendent azure of the unclouded sky. 



Nay, it catmot be proved that, as suggested by 

 Mr. A. G. Tansley, bees "neglect the more primitive 

 yellow or white forms" for those richly-coloured;, 

 or that— according to Miiller— they "show a marked 

 taste for blue, because blue is the colour of the most 

 advanced flowers I " 



Most assuredly not. Quite the reverse. 

 Now, of all flowers, hive bees most affect the 

 following, honey -producers— ^// large fruit trees, 

 probably without a single exception, raspberries, 

 strawberries, gooseberries, red and white currants, 

 Fyrus Japonica, willow-herb (Epilobium), borage, 

 sycamore, lime, snow-berry, mignonette, Limnanthes 

 Douglasii, ivy, white clover, Sedum spurium (?> 

 and many others. It will at once be seen that of this- 

 somewhat incomplete list— with the exception of the 

 willow-herb (pink), sedum (pink), pyrus (crimson), 

 and borage (blue), nearly the whole are white, or 

 nearly so, some greenish, and very many incon- 

 spicuous ; and there is but one bltie flower in the 

 whole series. 



Now although the support of an apiary of 

 fifty unusually strong stocks— consisting of probably 

 not less, in the height of the season, than one 

 and-a-half million bees— is very little helped by 

 half an acre of honey-producing flowers, proximity 

 to hives of even so limited a floricultural area is 

 a wonderful advantage in uncongenial weather, 

 since it tempts bees, afraid to venture to any 

 great distance from the apiary, to work near 

 home, and they will crowd upon plants but a short 

 distance off. I therefore invariably cultivated ex- 

 tensive beds of willow-herb, borage, mignonette, ar(d 

 the abundant honey-yielding sedum, with the result 

 that, weather permitting, those beds were at all 

 times crowded ; nor amongst the tens of thousands 

 that visited them could I ever distinguish any marked 

 preference for blue. If it ever appeared that one 

 plant was laid under heavier contribution than 

 another, it was perhaps the sedum referred to, its 

 rich stores inviting the visits not only of Apis 

 melliflca, but also of innumerable butterflies and- 

 humble-bees. 



Somewhat different is it in the case of humble- 

 bees. In the spring, when fruit trees are in full 

 bloom, their colonies are in their infancy, and very 

 few are to be seen ; but, as genial summer tardily 



