Transactions. 19 



variety 1 If ouc watclies the couinion bugle on a warm, ijuiet 

 tlay one can, I tliiuk, answer the question. Usually one has not 

 to wait long before one sees a furry, chestnut-coloured bumble 

 (Jiombus muscoriLm) Hying back and forwards in wide sweeps, 

 much as a pointer ranges a field of turnips for partridges. 

 Suddenly she will catch siglit of a bugle, and immediately Hy 

 straight to it, busily probing every Hower on the spike with an 

 excited and atfectionate iium. One sees at once that the bugle; 

 which is a small plant with a way of growing scattered in single 

 specimens, often in broken ground, requires a conspicuous, easily 

 distinguished colour. The blue Salvia j^raiensis is also a bumble- 

 bee flower ; on the other hand, several South American Salvias 

 have a rich red colour, and a shape suited to the humming birds, 

 which are known to visit them. Stachys has a habit of growing 

 in masses, and is a strong red suited to the taste of another 

 Jiombus which visits it frequently. Thyme, on the other hand, 

 is partly visited by the hive-bee, and partly by various flies, and 

 its strong scent enables it to do without such a deep and expen- 

 sive red as one finds in Stachys. I have never studied Lamitun 

 album in the field, but as I found it in full bloom as late as 

 October 30th, I am inclined to think it is visited by flies as well as 

 by bumbles; in any case, it is a very conspicuous plant, and easily 

 seen by bees. Our violets also show the advantage to a plant which 

 grows in scattered specimens of a colour conspicuous enough to 

 attract a bumble-bee flying, as they often do, at a rate of ten to 

 twenty miles an hour. It is true that the mountain violet 

 ( V. liUea) is yellow, but then this plant is commonly found on bare 

 hillsides, where it has few competitors, and is quite sufficiently 

 conspicuous. The blue vai-iety {amoena) is also common, proving 

 that V. lutea is a variety or incipient species. Again, in the 

 pink order, most of our English forms are white, but Sagina 

 prociunbens (Pearlwort) has no petals, as a rule, while Lychnis 

 diiirna and the Ragged Eobin are pink. I have found this 

 sunnuer that the Pearlwort is visited chiefly by ants, and it is 

 also no doubt largely self-fertilised, hence we may see how it can 

 do without petals. Again, the Day Campion and Ragged Robin 

 are visited almost entirely by bumble-bees. ' The difference 

 between Lycltnis diurna and Lychnis vespertina is perliaps the 

 best possible instance of the way in which insects may have 

 brought about a multiplication of species. L. vespertina has 



