THE BUMBLE-BEE 303 



tlH*y die and the current carries them away, while 

 the flowers quickened by the pollen curl up again and 

 descend once more beneath the water, there to ripen 

 their ovaries at leisure/' 



"It is wonderful, Uncle; one would say those little 

 flowers know what they are doing. ' ' 



' ' They do not know what they are doing; they 

 olny mechanically the laws of Providence, which 

 makes sport of difficulties and knows how to accom- 

 plish miracles in a simple blade of grass. Would 

 you like another striking example of this infinite wis- 

 dom that foresees everything, arranges everything? 

 Let us come back to the snap-dragon. 



"Insects are the flower's auxiliaries. Flies, 

 wasps, honey-bees, bumble-bees, beetles, butterflies, 

 all vie with one another in rendering aid by carrying 

 the pollen of the stamens to the stigmas. They dive 

 into the flower, enticed by a honeyed drop expressly 

 prepared at the bottom of the corolla. In their ef- 

 forts to obtain it they shake the stamens and daub 

 themselves with pollen, which they carry from one 

 flower to another. Who has not seen bumble-bees 

 coming out of the bosom of the (lowers all covered 

 with pollen? Their hairy stomachs, powdered with 

 pollen, have only to touch a stimna in passing t-> 

 communicate life to it. When in the spring y<>n Bee 

 on a blooming pear-tree, a whole swarm of flies, bees, 

 and butterflies, hurrying, humming, and fluttering, 

 it is a triple feast, my friends: a feast for the insect 

 that pilfers in the depth of the flowers; a feast for 

 the tree whose ovaries are quickened by all these 

 merry little people; and a feast for man, to whom 



