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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



that the higher insects, at least, now possess con- 

 siderable diseriminativeness for colors, in a man- 

 ner which does not differ greatly from our own. 

 Sir John discovered that a bee habitually fed 

 from a piece of paper of a particular color, would 

 at once select that color from a considerable 

 number of others, thereby demonstrating the es- 

 sential identity of its senses with those of human 

 beings. Now, it was pointed out above that 

 color means physically nothing more than par- 

 ticular kinds of light- waves ; and, accordingly, 

 the perception of color means nothing more than 

 a special susceptibility of individual nerves for 

 the reception of particular light-waves. What 

 can be more natural than that a body so modifi- 

 able as nerve-substance should show an aptitude 

 for accommodating itself to slight differences in 

 the external agencies which affect it ? Accord- 

 ingly, we can easily imagine how the small in- 

 sects of the palaeozoic world may have soon ac- 

 quired a power of discriminating vaguely the red 

 and purple ends of shoots where pollen and soft 

 nutriment were to be found from the compara- 

 tively innutritious green and horny portions of 

 the plant. Once this power had begun to ex- 

 ist, the two must continue to develop side by 

 side. Those plants which had the most conspic- 

 uous blossoms must have best attracted the in- 

 sects around them ; and those insects which were 

 most strongly attracted by conspicuous blossoms 

 must have fed most easily, and lived most persist- 

 ently. The bee, flying straight from flower to 

 flower, shows us the accuracy which is reached 

 at last in this mutual adaptation of the one to 

 the other. 



The facts of geology sufficiently prove that 

 such has been really the case. From age to age 

 we can trace, among the few remains which sur- 

 vive for our inspection, a gradual spread of flow- 

 ering plants and a gradual growth of flower-fed 

 insects. Step by step they go on advancing, 

 until at last we get the wonderful modifications 

 of each to each which have been traced out in 

 detail by Mr. Darwin, Sir John Lubbock, the 

 Mullers, and countless other earnest interpreters 

 of Nature. These modern teachers have shown 

 us how the lip of the flower has been shaped for 

 the bee to alight ; how the honey has been se- 

 creted at the very end of an ambrosial labyrinth ; 

 and how the pollen has been placed just where 

 the hairy forehead of the insect will brush gently 

 against it, and carry it off in a powdery mass or 

 in a sticky club. And they have noted how, 

 simultaneously, the legs and body of the bee 

 have grown adapted to the exact shape of the 



lip and bell ; how the senses have been quickened 

 to perceive the color and the odor ; and how the 

 proboscis has lengthened itself to the very di- 

 mensions of that ambrosial labyrinth which leads 

 in its inmost recesses to the prize of honey. They 

 have told us, too, how in many cases a particular 

 insect has adapted itself to a particular plant, 

 while the plant in return has laid itself out to de- 

 serve and secure the good services of that spe- 

 cific insect. In short, they have taught us to see 

 such a minute interdependence of animal and 

 vegetable life as had never before been dreamed 

 of in the whole history of natural science. 



Leaving out of consideration for the present 

 those modes in which flowers and insects have 

 been mutually modified in shape to meet one an- 

 other's convenience, let us look more closely at 

 those various ways in which the flower has been 

 adapted to the senses of the insect, while the 

 senses, in return, have been strengthened and 

 developed by the properties of the flower. There 

 are three principal means by which this interac- 

 tion takes place, namely, by the senses of taste, 

 of smell, and of sight. We shall examine all 

 three in order, and we shall notice as we do so 

 how singular is the bond of connection between 

 the lower and higher forms of life ; for we shall 

 find that our own likes and dislikes in taste, 

 smell, and color, can be traced down with great 

 plausibility to the exactly similar likes and dis- 

 likes of bees and butterflies. It will aid us in 

 explaining and comprehending this connection if 

 we remember that what flowers are to insects, 

 fruits are to birds and mammals. Both are col- 

 ored, scented, and sweet ; but they have ac- 

 quired their various allurements for the attrac- 

 tion of widely different creatures. Yet it shows 

 the general community of structure and function 

 running through the whole animal world, that 

 the very same sweet tastes, fragrant perfumes, 

 and bright hues, appeal in the very same way to 

 bees and butterflies as they appeal to parrots, to 

 humming-birds, and to men. 



First, then, as to taste. The need for food is, 

 of course, the primary allurement in every case, 

 both of the fruit and of the flower. The scents 

 and colors are only useful as guiding the seeker 

 to his dainty meal. In the earliest times, doubt- 

 less, the insect prowlers who carried pollen from 

 head to head regaled themselves upon the actual 

 juices of the plant, which in all fairness should 

 have gone to provide for the general needs of the 

 flower and seed. But plants must soon have 

 learned the trick of letting a little of their more 

 nutritious juice exude of its own accord, at once 



