I.] INDUSTRY OF THE BEE. n 



fertilised by insects. Such flowers generally have the 

 stigma more or less branched or hairy, which evidently 

 must tend to increase their chances of catching the 

 pollen. 



Moreover, as Mr. Darwin has observed, there does 

 not appear to be a single instance of an irregular 

 flower which is not fertilised by insects or birds. 



The evidence derivable from the relations of bees 

 to flowers is probably sufficient to satisfy most 

 minds that bees are capable of distinguishing colours, 

 but the fact had not been proved by any conclusive 

 experiments. I therefore tried the following. If you 

 bring a bee to some honey, she feeds quietly, goes 

 back to the hive, stores away her honey, and returns 

 with or without companions for another supply. 

 Each visit occupies about six minutes, so that there 

 are about ten in an hour, and about a hundred in a 

 day. I may add that in this respect the habits of 

 wasps are very similar, and that they appear to be 

 quite as industrious as bees. 



I once tested this by training a bee and a wasp to 

 come to some honey, and then timing them through 

 a whole day. Knowing they would be early I went 

 into my study a few minutes after four in the morning, 

 but the wasp was already at work, and continued 

 without a moment's intermission until 7.46 in the 

 evening, working without a moment's rest for nearly 

 sixteen hours and making no less than 116 visits to 

 the honey. The bee began at 5.45 A.M., or somewhat 

 later than the wasp, and left cff also rather earlier. 

 Perhaps I may give the record of the morning's work 

 of this wasp. 



