Mint and Thyme 279 
greater colonising power, though accompanied by 
small stature and inconspicuous flowers. Clary is 
common, and well distributed over these islands, 
whilst the more imposing Meadow Sage is rare, and 
confined to three counties (Cornwall, Kent, Oxford). 
It is really amusing to observe the methods by 
which flowers seek to check the depredations of in- 
sects that cannot perform the needed fertilisation, 
but yet have a decided taste for honey or pollen. 
Sometimes these insects prove too clever for the plant, 
and though their entrance may be barred, they con- 
trive to get at the honey by burglary—a breaking 
through the walls. I have already given instances of 
this in the case of short-tongued bees, who bore holes 
in the corolla-tubes and get at the honey. Similar 
evasions of the plant’s regulations have been noticed 
in Salvia. The common white butterfly stands at the 
entrance to the flower, and insinuating its long 
slender proboscis beneath the lower anther-lobes, 
reaches the honey without disturbing the machinery ; 
but this may some day cause the flower to develop 
some provision, especially against the dishonest 
butterfly. 
The familiar Ground Ivy (Nepeta glechoma) has 
flowers of similar structure, and like the Sage has 
them of two forms—larger and complete, smaller with 
perfect female organs only. From the shortness of 
the tube in the smaller flowers all our native humble- 
bees can reach the honey with their tongues. In the 
larger form the mouth of the tube is dilated to admit 
- the bee’s head, and make up for the increased length 
of the tube; but this has the effect of shutting out 
the Ground Humble-bee (Bombus terrestris), whose 
