940 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION G. 
other or both, but with these it is consumed where gathered — 
that is, it is consumed on the premises. 
I am not ignorant of the fact that the perceptive organs in 
insects are extremely acute, especially in social bees, and that 
they can both recognise colour and form. All beekeepers know 
that when young bees take their first flights how cautiously they 
survey the landmarks surrounding their habitations, and where 
large numbers of colonies are kept, and where every hive is the 
same pattern and colour, how necessary it is, when the virgin 
queens are taking their nuptial flights, to place distinguishing 
marks here and there to ensure the safe return of the young 
queen to her own home. But that bees are led to flowers by the 
colour they possess, and that certain bright colours—red, blue, 
purple, &c.—are more attractive to them than paler tints, such as 
white, yellow, &c., my experience most certainly contradicts. I 
know that the hichest authorities on the subject have written 
and stated that it is so, and it may appear something like gross 
presumption on my part to attempt to refute their statements. 
No doubt some of them have given the experience of observation, 
but by far too many have been satisfied by stating I was informed 
by Mr. So-and-So of certain movements in regard to bees and 
flowers. 
Sir John Lubbock, in his work on “ Bees, Ants, and Wasps,” 
says: ‘“ Most botanists are now agreed that insects, and especially 
bees, have played a very important part in the development of 
flowers.” . . “In cases of brightly coloured flowers the 
pollen is carried by the agency of insects.” “I thought,” he 
writes, “it would be desirable to prove this, if possible, by actual 
fact. I brought 2 bee to some honey which I placed on blue 
paper, and about 3 feet off I placed a similar quantity of honey 
on orange paper.” Why he need to place a similar quantity I 
cannot tell, and why he should have browght instead of allowing 
a bee to find it is a problem I cannot solve. Now comes the 
question—-was the bee attracted by the blue paper or the honey 
food? I have placed honey in a blue campanula, and many other 
flowers of both conspicuous and unconspicuous colours. When 
food is scarce bees will visit any colour; but when it is very 
plentiful they object to take honey already gathered. Last 
summer, in my garden, I had a scarlet dahlia in bloom. When 
it first flowered there was nota stamen present. No bees ever 
visited it. The plant was afterwards neglected by me, and this 
neglect caused the stamens to appear and the anthers to develop 
and the pollen to mature. With this bee-improvement in the 
flower it soon became a foraging ground for them. Why did 
they not visit the early blooms? Because there was no bee-food 
present. And why did they so visit it when the stamens 
appeared? The flowers were not nearly so conspicuous as the 
