1897] BEES AND THE DEVELOPMENT OE FLOWERS 103 



shapes, from the simplest to the most complex, does not seem to 

 imply that they have the requisite selective tendency as regards 

 form. This is further illustrated by the fact that bees may at times 

 be seen visiting ilowers which have lost their corollas wholly or in 

 part. Thus \ have seen them visit petal-less flowers of wild 

 geranium, bramble, and cistus. Darwin relates his observation of 

 the same fact. More recently Professor Plateau of Ghent has 

 removed the corollas of certain flowers, and found that this proceed- 

 ing made little difference to the insects visiting them. Bees may 

 also be seen to visit abnormally developed, as well as half -faded 

 flowers. In many cases, again, bees instead of using the form of the 

 flower supposed to be specially fitted for their convenience, and the 

 outcome of taste, will bite a hole near the base of the corolla, and 

 get the honey through it. These holes may frequently be seen in 

 heath and the bush vetch. 



Again, if our native flowers are the result of the selective action 

 of our native bees, and those which they have specially chosen for 

 countless generations, how is it that bees take so readily to many 

 flowers of verv different forms introduced into our gardens from 

 abroad ? For such introduced plants are in many cases freely visited 

 by native bees. 



In order to evolve and keep distinct new species bees would 

 have to be extremely constant in their visits to flowers : in a single 

 journey from the nest, or until they got rid of all the pollen 

 adhering to their bodies, they would have to visit only a single 

 variety. If they did not do so they would not merely be unable to 

 develop and differentiate new varieties ; they would even retard by 

 intercrossing, varieties developing into species by any other means. 

 It is pretty generally believed that the bee is very constant in its 

 visits to flowers, and that when it begins with any particular species 

 it keeps to that until it has obtained its load. So long ago as the 

 time of Aristotle, indeed, the constancy of the bee was noted as a 

 fact in natural history. But while it is true that bees do show a 

 considerable amount of constancy and often visit a large number of 

 flowers of the same species in succession, they are far from possessing 

 that amount of constancy required by the theory. For this they 

 would require to restrict themselves, not merely to a single species, 

 but to one variety of that species. This is obvious, since all species 

 are supposed to have begun as varieties ; and it is even more import- 

 ant that they should restrict themselves to one variety than to one 

 species, since such varieties will be more readily crossed by transfer- 

 ence of pollen. But it is a well-established fact that bees pass freely 

 from variety to variety of the same species in our gardens. Darwin 

 has observed this, and it is one of the most firmly established results of 

 my own observations. They do not even confine themselves in a single 



