THE FLOWER AND THE BEE 



might have arrived at diametrically opposite conclusions as to 

 the value of red clover as a honey-plant. 



Three other genera of very common bumblebee-flowers may 

 be found in almost any old-fashioned garden. They are the 

 larkspurs {Delphinium), the aconites, or monk's-hoods {Aconi- 

 ium), and the columbines {Aquilegia) . They all agree in hav- 

 ing the nectar concealed in long spurs or nectaries, which vary 

 in length in the different species. The tongues of the various 

 species of bumblebees also differ in length, ranging in the 

 workers from iV to \l of an inch. In the females, or queens, 

 the tongue is still longer, and in the garden-bumblebee of Eu- 

 rope reaches the length of } § of an inch. 



Of our hardy perennials there are few which produce a more 

 stately effect than the bee-larkspur {Delphinium elatum) with 

 its wand-like racemes of deep-blue flowers. This plant is a 

 native of Europe, where it is pollinated by the female of the 

 garden-bumblebee, no other bee on the wing at the time it 

 blooms having a tongue long enough to reach all of the nectar, 

 although a part of it is accessible to a few other bees. I have 

 seen honey-bees searching the flowers and pushing their tongues 

 down into the long spurs as far as possible, but they were never 

 able to gain any of the sweet spoil. (Fig. 36.) 



The aconites, or, as they are perhaps better known, the 

 monk's-hoods, are, says Kronfeld, bumblebee-flowers par ex- 

 cellence. When a plaster-cast is made of the inside of a flower 

 it is found to correspond almost exactly to the shape of a 

 medium-sized bumblebee. This genus of plants is so depen- 

 dent on bumblebees for pollination that it is absent from those 

 parts of the world where there are no bumblebees. For in- 

 stance, there are no native bumblebees in Australia, Arabia, 

 South Africa, and New Zealand, and in these countries there 

 are no indigenous species of Aconitum. (Fig. 37.) 



74 



