COLOUR OF FLOWERS—ITS INFLUENCE ON BEE-LIFE. 94] 
earlier blooms. But in passing over they saw there was a reward 
for their labour. Double flowers—I mean flowers in which the 
whole of the stamens have become petals—are far more showy 
and conspicuous than single ones, both being of the same variety 
and the same colour. Bees abhor double flowers, no matter of 
what colour, but single ones they love ; but it is cupboard love, 
and cupboard love only. 
Last September I wrote the following, and it appeared in the 
October Agricultural Gazette :—“ Early last spring the white 
Arum lily (Arum africanus) was in bloom, and its white pollen 
was eagerly sought for by bees. At the same time the broad- 
beans were in full flower. These, too, were an attractive foraging- 
ground for the same insects. A little later the peach-trees burst 
into flower, with the result that the firstmamed was entirely 
forsaken, and the latter receiving only an occasional visit. Did 
the bees go to the peach-tree on account of their attractive 
colours? Not a bit of it. While the peaches were in flower 
so were the willows (Salix babylonica) just throwing out their 
catkins. When these two trees, peaches and willows, were in 
bloom my bees were bringing in pollen of two colours, one creamy- 
white and the other somewhat of an orange tint. At the same 
time, in the district where I live there were roses, marigolds, 
arum lilies, and other attractive flowers in full bloom, but few 
bees were visiting them. The pollen was coming in from the 
willows and peach-trees; there was also honey coming in from 
the latter. The flowers (catkins) on the willows are so incon- 
spicuous that a large number of people are ignorant of the fact 
that they are phanerogamic; yet they were as attractive to the 
bees as the gaudy peach-trees. During the same spring, and at 
about the same time, I visited the Botanical Gardens, and the 
most attractive beds of flowers then in bloom were the English 
daisies, pansies, anemones, and the turban ranunculus. Nothing 
in the Gardens were more showy than the two latter, yet no bee 
visited them. Near these was a shrub (Luxus sempervirens) in 
which there was a constant hum from the bees. What was the 
cause? Hidden among the dark green foliage there were hundreds 
of small greenish flowers, supplying abundance of food. If colour 
had been the attractive agent, bees would never have discovered 
their food in the shrub, and they would have sought the showy 
beds of anemones, &c., in vain; they were double, and therefore 
there was no pollen food. But who will dare to say the attractive 
colour was absent? A short time afterwards I saw the bogan- 
villias aglow with their showy bracts ; they could be seen hundreds 
of yards away. At the same time the pittosporums were in 
flower. These latter were so inconspicuous that before they 
could be detected you need stand directly under them. I visited 
both—the boganyillias and the pittosporum ; in the former there 
