26 The Irish Naturalist. March, 



insects that visit them, and a taking of careful notes on 

 the conduct of the insects when so engaged. It is true that 

 a very large amount of attention has already been paid to 

 this subject, and volumes written upon it that afford 

 dehghtful reading ; but it is far from being an exhausted 

 field, and I am convinced that some of our really common 

 flowers are still misunderstood. 



As an instance I will mention the Rest-harrow [Ononis 

 repens) , which is common enough about Dublin to be within 

 nearly everybody's range of study. Of this plant you 

 will find it stated in Lord Avebury's fascinating little book 

 " British Wild Flowers considered in relation to Insects," 

 that it secretes no honey, but is visited by bees for the 

 purpose of collecting the pollen, which, of course, is brought 

 home to the nest to make bee-bread for the young. Now 

 Lord Avebur^^ of course, had good authority for the state- 

 ment he has made, and I am not aware that it has ever 

 been contradicted. But I have notes of seeing the Rest- 

 harrow visited in Coiinty Wexford by large numbers of 

 male bumble-bees of more than one species ; and as it is 

 certain that the males of this family of insects do not coUect 

 pollen, or take any part in the bringing home of food for 

 the young, I find it very difficult to reconcile their evident 

 fondness for the flowers of the Rest-harrow^ with what 

 seems to be the received opinion that it does not secrete 

 honey. 



However, in my perplexity I turned again to Lord 

 Avebury, and found that I had not been the first observer 

 of this peculiar fact — the fact of the Rest-harrow being 

 sometimes visited by male bees. It had been observed 

 by Miiller, the great German authority on the subject of 

 cross-pollination in the plant -world by insect agency ; and 

 Muller's explanation is that the male bees go to the Rest- 

 harrow by mistake, " in a vain search for honey." Now 

 here we have an explanation that might do very well if 

 the visits were occasional ; but I am bound to say that it 

 does not fit the circumstances of the visits observed by me 

 in a little field in County Wexford where I was observing 

 the habits of bees on several days in August, 1919. 



In this little field Ononis repens was growing abundantly. 



