THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 117 



flowers were - lacking in color, fragrance and nectar, but 

 when nectar bearing flowers appeared, nectar-loving insects 

 were there to serve them and the two have since developed 

 together. Notwithstanding this, many cases of the mutual 

 adaptations of flowers and insects seem a matter of fore- 

 ordination, especially in those cases where the interde- 

 pendence is so great that neither plant nor insect can thrive 

 without the other. The yucca and the pronuba moth, or 

 the fig and the Blastophaga, are good illustrations. In gen- 

 eral flowers have not only become adapted to the visits of 

 insects, -but they have been specialized to such an extent 

 that there are now bee flowers, butterfly flowers, fly flowers 

 and various other categories each distinguished by pecu- 

 liarities of shape, color and time of blooming. On the other 

 hand there are species of bees — many of them — that fre- 

 quent only a single species. When its flowers are open, 

 its favorite bees are on the wing and when the blossoms 

 close, that is the end of the bee's season of life until another 

 year. One bee of this kind visits the spring beauty, another 

 the common violet, another favors the crane's-bill and a 

 fourth the strawberry. Nearly a quarter of the North 

 American bees have this habit. A full account of these 

 matters and many others relating to flowers and insects 

 are given in a volume entitled, "The Flower and the Bee," 

 recently issued by Charles Scribner's Sons. The author is 

 John H. Lovell. Being both botanist and entomologist 

 he is particularly well fitted for the task of making a book 

 on flower pollination. The early chapters of the book give 

 an account of the discovery of the relations of flowers and 

 insects and others discuss the groups of flowers visited by 

 bees, butterflies, bumblebees, hawk moths, flies, etc. There 

 is also a discussion of the colors of North American flowers, 

 part of which earlier appeared in this magazine, and some 

 observations on the usefulness of bees to the fruit grower. 



