THE FLOWER. I 3 



hairs which cover the style and comes out when the bee 

 presses down the two side petals. In the Birdsfoot- 

 trefoil the pollen is squeezed out of a small opening at 

 the tip of the two lowest united petals, but in all 

 flowers of this order, Leguminosae^ the same general 

 scheme is followed. 



The most common characteristics of flowers which 

 are intended to attract the hive bee or humble bee are 

 as follows : 



{a) The colour is very often either a deep purple blue, 

 a light blue, or a rich red as in the Aconite, Bugle, 

 Larkspur, Woundwort, Bugloss, and Red Clover. 



{U) The honey, again, is often so concealed that only 

 an intelligent creature can discover it. This is well 

 seen in the garden Snap-dragon and the Toadflax, 

 where the petals are swollen out into a sort of lip which 

 has to be forced open by the bee's head. 



{c) The flower is almost always rather a large one, so 

 that only insects with a long proboscis can reach the 

 honey. This is easily seen in the Red Campion or in 

 the Ragged Robin, both of which have long-tubed 

 flowers with a little scaly arrangement at the entrance 

 to the tube which prevents smaller insects from forcing 

 their way in. In such cases the length of the proboscis 

 of the humble bee or butterfly and that of the tube or 

 narrow part of the flower are often nearly the same, but 

 generally a certain give-and-take occurs ; flowers, in 

 fact, very seldom limit their visitors to one particular 

 species of insect. 



The shape of the flowers generally suits the average 

 insect visitor or it is so arranged that all those which 

 are desirable visitors find it convenient. The Foxglove 

 is an exception, for it agrees in shape almost exactly 

 with the body of the humble bee which visits it ; and 



