FLOWERS AND HUMANITY 



fault is with the bees or with the honey flora. Unfortunately, 

 to many an apiarist the wild flowers always remain strangers. 



"Primroses by the river's brim 

 Dicotyledons are to him. 

 And they are nothing more." 



Then, again, there are some bee-keepers who appear to look 

 upon flowers as created or evolved solely for the benefit of bee- 

 culture. They are slow to realize that there are blossoms 

 which are nectarless, or which contain nectar which is inaccessi- 

 ble to honey-bees. Accordingly we find from time to time, 

 bird-flowers, bumblebee-flowers, butterfly-flowers, and moth- 

 flowers, pollen-flowers, and wind-pollinated flowers reported as 

 excellent honey plants. That a flower should produce nectar 

 plentifully, but at the bottom of a tube so long that honey-bees 

 cannot reach it, seems to them an evidence, as a Yankee once 

 remarked, that "Providence was kind, but careless." Nature 

 fashioned the wild flowers before the human race appeared 

 upon the earth, and they would not have been one whit different 

 to-day had the appearance of mankind been deferred to some 

 distant future. 



Undoubtedly the influence of flowers upon the development 

 of the human race has been both profound and far-reaching. 

 So intimately do they enter into every phase of life, and so elo- 

 quently do they express every emotion, that it was long believed 

 that their bright colors, sweet odors, and varied forms were 

 created solely for the benefit of man. We cannot imagine what 

 this world would have been without them, or estimate the en- 

 joyment that would have been lost, or the power for good that 

 would have been forever missing; but we know that humanity 

 would have been less perfect than it is to-day. And the loss 

 of conspicuous flowers is not inconceivable, for their develop- 



5 



