FLOWERS AND INSECTS 165 



passing rain-storms ; seeking (6) victims ; while moving from 

 flower to flower in (7) copulation ; also by (8) violence. In this 

 list, by 3 and 4 I mean something quite difl'erent. Sunning or 

 daylight rest is quite difl'erent from the heaviness of the evening 

 or dark hours of night. I suggest sleep because insects are not on 

 the alert as when sunning or resting in broad daylight ; they are 

 much more easily taken in the glass tubes in which I capture 

 specimens for identification. Butterfly or sweeping nets are much 

 too inclusive for this special work. On 8 a few words must be 

 said. Pollination in many so-called anemophilous species is 

 caused by disturbance from insects flying through grass and other 

 vegetation, and shaking out the pollen by the violence of their 

 movements. They carry, I find, a proportion of the disturbed 

 pollen on their bodies, to be scattered and left when they come in 

 contact with other plants — often, in the case of grasses, of the 

 same species. This form of pollination is quite independent of 

 the help they give to wind drift. 



The hive-bee has been working in this parish (Cadney-cum- 

 Howsham) part of ten days since January last. Galanthus was 

 the first species I saw visited ; then in order came Eranthis, 

 Crocus, Helleborus fcetidus, Privmla vulgaris, Cheiranthus, Dcvpline 

 mezereum (but not D. Laureola, though it is in full flower), and 

 Viola odorata. In every case the bees were collecting pollen. 

 During four days bees have visited Primroses and Polyanthuses 

 in three gardens here. Our local Polyanthuses are only the 

 caulescent variety of the Primrose, without the least admixture, 

 so far as I can discover. Now, though I am miles from the 

 nearest clump of wild primroses, there have been quantities of 

 garden ones flowering here since early February. 



During the opening days of March bees were steadily gather- 

 ing pollen on all the flowers during the midday hours. All were 

 visited, but the short-styled were the favourites. Every flower — 

 and there are hundreds— must have been visited in the Manor 

 House garden here. The bees seemed to prefer plants approxi- 

 mating in colour to the wild form, but in the end all were visited. 

 I noticed also the same preference for the yellow-coloured forms 

 in the school-house garden at Howsham, two miles away. All 

 the Primroses left in my garden are oft'-coloured, there are few 

 plants, and, so far as I and my little sons have been able to 

 observe, they have not been visited. I have taken for my type 

 collection of insect visitors specimens of hive-bees with Primrose 

 pollen-masses on their thighs. I find that these masses often fall 

 off their legs after the bees are cyanided, thougli the tubes pre- 

 serve them. 



Bees carry the pollen of the short-styled form on the hairs of 

 the body, ligula, &c., and leave a certain proportion of it on the 

 long-styled pistil in searching this form. The bee carefully inserts 

 its ligula into the tube of each flower ; it, however, only delays if 

 there is pollen on the lower side of the pistil, corolla-mouth, or on 

 the petal disc. It leaves the pollen of the short-styled form, as a 

 rule, only on the first and second flowers visited. In a few 



