174 JOHN H. LOVELL* 



small groups of conspicuous, nectarless flowers, and even those 

 containing nectar, will be likely to be passed over unheeded. 



CONCLUSIONS 



Entomophilous flowers are usually characterized by the pos- 

 session of either bright coloration, or odor, or both, although 

 apparently to some extent the two qualities are mutually ex- 

 clusive. Both allurements are useful in attracting the attention 

 of insects; but the absence of either conspicuousness, or odor, or 

 both, will not necessarily cause a flower to be neglected if it con- 

 tains an ample supply of pollen or nectar. But under similar 

 conditions, small, green, odorless flowers, even if rich in nectar, 

 will not be discovered as quickly as nectariferous flowers, which 

 are conspicuous or agreeably scented. <> On the other hand, the 

 possession of both color and odor will not ensure frequent visits 

 in the absence of available food materials. The experiments afford 

 no evidence that bees visit flowers for the purpose of experiencing 

 an aesthetic pleasure. 



Insects, especially bees, occasionally examine the neglected, 

 conspicuous flowers of cultivation; but, obtaining no food mat- 

 erials, or very little, they do not often repeat their visits. Many 

 neglected flowers are pleasantly scented, and the addition of 

 another agreeable odor is neither necessary nor beneficial. 



When odoriferous fruit syrups are introduced into conspicuous 

 flowers, commonly neglected, a group of miscellaneous insects, 

 especially Diptera, will be attracted; but the inference that, 

 therefore, color is no advantage and that an agreeable odor is 

 required is fallacious. For the introduction of an odorless 

 syrup into similar flowers will induce insect visits in large num- 

 bers; also when flowers, with the nectar inaccessible to honey- 

 bees and, consequently, seldom visited by them, have the 

 nectaries artificially punctured, or the floral tubes shortened by 

 drouth, they are then visited by bees in countless thousands 

 without the addition of either an agreeable odor or a sweet liquid. 

 Flowers which in one. locality freely secrete nectar and are visited 

 by numerous insects are sometimes in other localities nectarless 

 and almost entirely neglected. Insects, therefore, perceive the 

 colors and forms of neglected flowers, and the rarity of their 



«Lovell, John H.. " The Pollination of Green Flowers," Amer. Nat., 46:83-107, 

 1912. 



