212 Agricultural Gazette of N.S.TF, [Mar. 2, 1908. 



creamv-wliite flowers, ai-e cijually as attracti\<- in c-olnm a-< tlic ])oach-trees, 

 yet where one Ijee visits tin- lattci- a tlniusan<l will \isit the fnimer. 



The niaiiut'actmiiii;' <it aitilicial lluwcis has Ixeoiiie so jierfect of hite, aixl 

 tlie iniitatious are so iiiueli like natnial llowcrs that wlieii placeil ainniijfst 

 iiatiiiMl foliage, the experienced eye of the tiorist freijuently fails to detect 

 the fi-aiid. Even if it be a honey or pollen bearing imitation bees are not- 

 deceived thereby. Tf the colour of the flowers or their forms are the adver- 

 tisements telling thi'in where they could get ht)ney, how is it that liees and 

 oth^r insects are not swarming on the head dresses of the fashionablv attired 

 la 'lies of today? No one can (h^ny that these ai'titicia'. Ilowers are as jierfect 

 both in foi'iu and colour to the sight as the natural ones they are meant to 

 represent, only their essentials of re])roduction are absent. The food bees 

 recjuire is wanting, and food, find foo I alone, is the only advertisem(>nt that 

 will induce the b(H» to search for sustenance even in natuial blooms. 'I'lu-ir 

 natural intelligence and generations of education have taught iheni the true 

 sources of wealth. i^)^es will no more search eolouis in the expectation of 

 getting food than a gold-miner would go fossicking in a coal-pit for gold. 



Botanists and entomologists s|)eak of bees as one of the highest types of 

 insects, and Grant Allen, in "The Story of the Plant," speaks of them 

 thus: — "These higher insects . . . are the safest fertilisers because 

 tliev have legs and a pi-oboscis exactly adapted to the work they are meant 

 for; and t]i(y have also, as a rule, a taste for red, blue, and purjile flowers, 

 rather than for simple white or yellow ones. Jlence, the blossoms that 

 especially lay themselvt>s out for the highei- insects ai'e almost always blue 

 or pur])le.'' 



Darwin, in "(Self-fertilisation of Plants," says: — "Not onlv do the 

 bright colours of flowers serve to attract insects, but dai-k-coloured streaks 

 and marks are often present, which Sprengel long ago maintained serve as. 

 guides to the nectary," and "that the coloured corolla is the ehief guide 

 cannot be doubted." The native daphne {Pifti>sporu>n undnlafn/n) fiower 

 has a creamy corolla hidden amongst its deej) green foliage. These trees, 

 both in the P)t)tanic and in private gardens, were in l)l()om at the same time 

 as the double-Howered p(vxch. In the formei' the bees wcie in swarms busily 

 at work, and oidv an odd bee occasionally visite 1 the latter, ami the Ilowers. 

 visited were tlio.se containing a few scattered anthers from whence they 

 could scrape together a few grains of jiollen. The bright lilooms of the 

 double-dowering peach could be seen hundieds of yards away, V)ut to discover 

 the flowers on the pittosporum you nved stand undei'neath the tree. There 

 is I'o (lower in this State more frequently visited by bees than the simjile 

 white or creamy yellow eucalyptus bloom. ]t is the lieekeeper's most 

 impoi'tant source of profit. 



Again, we are told that markings on certain flowers are finger-posts. " The 

 lines or spots so often found on the petals of liighly-develo|)ed flowers," says 

 the author of "The Story of the Plant," "act as honey guides to lead the bee 

 or other fertilising itisect direct to the nectary " ; he then goes on to describe 

 the "so-called nasturtium." The up]ier paii' (of petals) ai-e broad and 



