188 A NATURALIST IN HIMALAYA 



plant and the insect. The balsam is always striving 

 to adjust its blossoms to the size and shape of the 

 fertilizing bee. If the bell grows too wide, then the 

 bees will be able to enter without touching the anthers ; 

 if the bell grows too narrow, then the bees cannot 

 enter at all, and they will then adopt the new plan of 

 perforating the base of the petals. In either case the 

 plant will be the loser, as the bees will fail to fertilize 

 the flowers. The competition is no doubt incessant, 

 and only those plants bearing flowers of suitable size 

 and shape will be able ultimately to survive. Never- 

 theless, the plant must meet with great success in the 

 struggle, since it is a dominant species, and its beauty 

 is now spread and may be still further spreading over 

 the wooded slopes of the Western Himalaya. 



In this plan of perforating the base of the corolla 

 the hive-bee seems to be lacking in the instinct so 

 well performed by the less social humble-bee. It is 

 amusing to watch the hive-bee in its earnest efforts 

 to secure the nectar from some tubular blossom too 

 narrow to permit its entering within. It eagerly 

 examines the outside of the tube ; it explores with its 

 antennae the base of the corolla in the hope of finding 

 a way in. It sometimes meets with a blossom about 

 to fall from the parent stem, and in this way discovers 

 a natural aperture through which it can insert its 

 tongue, or it may happen to alight on a hole previ- 

 ously cut by a humble-bee. It knows well the exact 

 spot where the nectar lies, but what it seems quite 

 unable to do is to cut an aperture for itself. It cer- 

 tainly seemed a little strange that a species endowed 

 with such mental attributes as the hive-bee, in which 

 the social instincts are so highly developed and to 



