284 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



placing from time to time honey on a piece of plain glass. This 

 naturally gave the plain glass a great advantage ; nevertheless, as 

 will be seen, the blue still retained its pre-eminence. It seems 

 hardly necessary to give the others in extenso. The following 

 shows the general result of the number of visits in one hundred 

 experiments extending over nine days :— Blue, 275 ; green, 427 ; 

 orange, 440; plain, 491; red, 413; white, 349; yellow, 405. 

 The precautions taken seem to me to have placed the colours 

 on an equal footing ; while the number of experiments appears 

 sufficient to give a fair average. It will be observed also that 

 the different series agree well among themselves. The difterence 

 between the numbers is certainly striking. Adding together 

 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 we get 28 as the total number given by each 

 journe}'^; 100 journeys therefore give a total of 2800, which 

 divided by 7 would of course, if no preference were shown, give 

 400 for each colour. The numbers given, however, are — for the 

 blue only 275, for the white 349, yellow 405, red 413, green 427, 

 orange 440, and plain glass as many as 491. 



Another mode of testing the result is to take the percentage 

 in which the bees went respectively to each colour first, second, 

 third, and so on. For instance, that out of a hundred rounds the 

 bees took blue as one of the first three in 74 cases, and one of the 

 last four only in 20 cases ; while, on the contrary, they selected 

 the plain as one of the first three only in 25 cases, and one of the 

 last four in 75 cases, 



I may add that I was by no means prepared for this result. 

 Miiller, in his remarkable volume on ' Alpine Flowers,' states 

 that bees are much more attracted by yellow than by white.* 



I may very likely be asked why it is that if blue is the favourite 

 colour of bees, and if bees have had so much to do with the origin 

 of flowers, how is it that there are so few blue ones ? I believe 

 the explanation to be that all blue flowers have descended from 

 ancestors in which the flowers were green, and that they bave 

 passed tbrough stages of white or yellow, and generally red, 

 before becoming blue. That all flowers were originally green 

 and inconspicuous as those of so many plants are still, has, 

 I think, been shown by recent researches, especially those of 

 Darwin, Miiller, and Hildebrand. 



But what are the considerations which seem to justify us in 

 * Alpenblumen, p. -487, 



