190 PROBLEMS OF EVOLUTION 



honey, she returns from the hive to the same place for more. If 

 it has been moved or covered up, she looks about for it and 

 generally finds it. When he removed the corollas of the even- 

 ing primrose, the bees explored the whole plant and got honey 

 from the mutilated flowers. They already knew that honey was 

 to be got there and searched till they found it. They inspected 

 the fallen petals but did not attempt to get honey from them. 

 Thus they showed at once their colour sense and their wisdom. 

 The Thus far we have shown that plants require cross-fertilisation, 

 C n <jf tees an d that bees, attracted by colour, effect this for them. That 

 bees may also be attracted by scent hardly requires proof, 

 beyond what anyone may obtain by his own observation. The 

 lime Tilia has very obscure flowers, but the whole tree may be 

 heard buzzing with bees. But now another point calls for 

 investigation. 



Ever since the days of Aristotle the bee has had a reputation 

 for constancy. She does not fly from dandelion (Taraxacum) to 

 narcissus, but during one journey is faithful to the dandelion, or 

 whatever type of flower she has chosen. By this constancy she 

 gains -a great deal. By continued practice at the same exercise 

 she acquires dexterity of limb and proboscis and dives into the 

 nectary and extracts the honey with far greater speed than if she 

 wandered to flowers of a different build. There is but little of 

 the tentative buzzing and reconnoitring that is unavoidable when 

 she is investigating an unfamiliar blossom. At the same time 

 she benefits the flowers far more than she would if she adopted 

 a random method ; she very frequently effects cross-fertilisation 

 between flowers of the same species, and that from the plant's 

 point of view is her sole raison d'etre. But this constancy has its 

 limits and is a very poor foundation for the elaborate theories 

 that have been built upon it. 



One of the great difficulties in the way of the origin of species 

 through the struggle for existence and Natural Selection is that 

 new varieties as they arise will be swamped by inter-crossing 

 with other varieties or with the species from which they have 

 diverged. In the case of the bee, then, what we want to know 

 is whether she distinguishes varieties or nearly allied species 



