BARBERRY MANNERS 223 
medium, and the genista flowers consider the 
most expressive form of welcome. But the little 
bees seem to enjoy it, and go again and again to 
each successive flower, well knowing what the re- 
sult will be, and apparently " touching off the 
trigger " without a tremor, or even holding their 
breath. But they and their foreparents for thou- 
sands of years have got accustomed to it, and I 
half imagine that the baby bee, even in his first 
visit to one of these blossoms, knows precisely 
what will happen. Pop ! pop ! go the explod- 
ing flowers, one after the other, at each touch of 
the bee, throwing up a cloud of yellow pollen 
which covers the bodies of the insects until they 
are as dusty as little millers. 
There is an endless variety in these various 
welcomes among the flowers, and our barberry 
has one of the queerest of them all. Poets of all 
ages have loved to dwell upon the flowers their 
" swete smels," exquisite forms, fragrance, and 
colors. The droning bees in an environment of 
fragrant bloom have moved many a poetic pen to 
inspiration. But it is not often that the bards 
have seen deep enough into the floral mysteries 
to immortalize the doings of the blossoms. 
I recall one such allusion, however, with ref- 
erence to this mischievous blossom of the bar- 
berry. How well old Hosea Biglow knew its 
pranks ! 
