LOST BEES 



Not only so, but there are the neatest imaginabk contrasts 

 and blends of colour. The common Bluebeard Salvia, e.g., 

 has the uppermost leaves (three-quarters to an inch long) of 

 a deep, rich, blue-purple, which the roving Bumble-bee will 

 see from a long way off. The Bumble-bee flies to this great 

 splash of her favourite hue and for a second buzzes angrily, 

 then she notes the small bright-blue patches on the upper 

 lips of the small flowers below the leaves which are set off* by 

 white hairs of the upper and yellow hairs of the lower lip. 



That bees really do understand and are guided by colour 

 may be gathered from the following unfortunate accident. 

 A certain hive of bees which had been brought up in a blue- 

 striped skep became accidentally scattered. They tried to find 

 their way back to their old home, but many strayed, and it 

 was noticed that they had tried to enter the doors of every 

 blue hive, which were strewn with the bodies of the un- 

 fortunate intruders.^ 



The rich blue-purple of Aconite, the dark strong red of 

 the Woundwort {Stachys silvaticd) are specially beloved by 

 bumble-bees and hive-bees. Butterflies like any bright colour. 

 Those flies which have a long, sucking proboscis, resemble 

 the bees in their tastes, but all these insects are quite capable 

 of finding out where they can get honey most easily, and 

 visit flowers whatever the colour may be. 



A very strange and wonderful fact is that quite a number 

 of plants prefer the dark, or rather the dim, mysterious light 

 of the gloaming. Then the Honeysuckle, the Evening 

 Campion, the Night-scented Stock, Tobacco, and Schizopetalon 

 give out their strongest scent and open out their white flowers 

 as widely as possible. That is because they wish to attract 

 the owlet moth and others which come out at this time, 

 ^ Von Buttel, Eespen. 

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