222 EYE SPY 
scious beings ? Yes, manners, unquestionably 
" bad manners," it would almost seem, in some in- 
stances, as, for example, in this andromeda blos- 
som-bell, which, in its perfume and its nectar, de- 
liberately invites the tiny Andrena bee, only to 
deluge its little, black, hairy face with a smother- 
ing shower of dusty pollen. A remarkable style 
of etiquette, surely, that is, from our human stand- 
point. But in the realm of Flora the standards 
of decorum, so far as greeting is concerned, are 
not governed by artificial whim. There is no 
" smart set " to dictate and set the fashion for oth- 
ers less smart to follow. Each individual flower 
is a law unto itself as to the method of its greet- 
ing to its especial insect friend. The blossom eti- 
quette of welcome is literally as " old as the hills," 
and has come down with little change from an 
ancestry which dates back perhaps to a period 
when there were no human " ancestors " on the 
globe. So these " manners " are natural and orig- 
inal, to say the least, even if they are so queer 
sometimes. What would you think of a friend 
whose hospitable smile and welcome at his door- 
way should invite you thither only that your foot 
might touch a trigger and let fall the floor be- 
neath you, while at the same time you are half 
suffocated with an explosion of a bushel of yellow 
corn meal ? Yet such is something like the spec- 
tacular reception which the lotus clover, the des- 
