76 MYSTERIES OF THE FLOWERS 



and then serving pollen and nectar where they are 

 most conveniently consumed ; in short, treating the 

 guest like a spoiled and pampered favourite. 



Then, notice that these separate flowers work 

 together, blooming and shedding pollen as the bee 

 wills it, and thus, by suave and courteous treatment, 

 getting the most that the bee can give. This fine 

 hospitality, and conformity in the habits of the 

 flowers with those of the bee, even to the uttermost 

 detail, seems to me to indicate either that flowers 

 think and plan their own lives, or else that they are 

 moulded and modified by an all-pervading Con- 

 sciousness which makes all things and finds them 

 good. 



If the bee were the blundering, heedless fellow 

 that his appearance and his habits imply, the 

 chances for the transfer of a little pinch of pollen 

 dust from one minute point to another minute point 

 would seem exceedingly precarious. But the bee 

 has very regular habits, after all. He does not 

 zigzag from flower to flower, as is generally sup- 

 posed, but, on one round from his hive, he sticks 

 strictly to one flower, as if he were under the spell 

 of some colour-charm, or obsessed with the desire 

 for some sweet perfume. You will find much en- 

 tertainment in watching certain bees invariably 

 visiting flowers of the same kind in a gay border, 



