CONSPICUOUS FLOWERS RARELY VISITED BY INSECTS 175 



visits is the result of their memory of the absence of food materials, 

 not because the flowers lack an agreeable odor, which is often 

 not the fact. 



The flowers into which Plateau introduced odoriferous sweet 

 liquids were thus artificially converted into distinct physio- 

 logical varieties. Since flowers possessing conspicuousness, an 

 agreeable odor, and a liquid food were opposed to flowers pos- 

 sessing only conspicuousness, it is clear that color was never 

 directly brought into competition with odor — the latter was 

 invariably given the advantage. 



Colors and odors attract the attention of insects, but bees in 

 their visits to flowers, previously examined by them, are guided 

 largely by the memory of past experience; they are able to 

 associate different sense impressions and unconsciously make 

 analogous inferences. 



