THE FLOWER AND THE BEE 



doubtless for this reason that yellow flowers enjoy so great 

 popularity both in the United States and Europe. 



The goldenrods, a genus of beautiful and stately plants, 

 which are everyrxhere common in North America, bloom from 

 midsummer until late fall. They are most valuable as a source 

 of honey, and in New England are the main reliance of the bee- 

 keeper for winter stores for his colonies. They are great favor- 

 ites with the honey-bee, and are visited also by more than 100 

 other species of insects. The bright-yellow color of the flowers 

 renders them conspicuous both by day and evening; and as 

 the temperature of the inflorescence at night is several degrees 

 above that of the surrounding air, they sometimes serve as a 

 nocturnal refuge for insects. 



"And in the evening, everywhere. 

 Along the roadside, up and down, 

 I see the golden torches flare. 



Like lighted street-lamps in the town. 



I think the butterfly and bee. 



From distant meadows coming back, 



Are quite contented when they see 



These lamps along the homeward track." 



— Sherman. 



Yellow flowers in their natural state exhibit but httle varia- 

 tion in color. They change most readily to white, and less 

 often to red and blue. Under cultivation Darwin noted a double 

 yellow hollyhock, which suddenly turned one year into a single 

 white form, and a chrysanthemum has been observed to bear 

 both yellow and white flowers. Some species of mustard reg- 

 ularly fade to white, and not a few white flowers show that 

 they are derived from an ancestral yellow by retaining vestiges 

 of this color at the base of the petals, as the water-crowfoot. 

 The pale-yellow flowers of CEnothera laciniata, of the golden 



236 



