CALIFORNIA PLANTS IN THEIR HOMES 



clever enough to unfold the lower lip and get the honey, 

 and they never touch anther or stigma. So it appears that 

 the native California bees deal fairly with the white sage, 

 but the immigrant hive bees simply steal from the flowers 

 tons and tons of honey that we in turn take from the bees. 



The sages provide rich stores of honey, and the hum- 

 ming birds know this very well; so, although they must 

 share with the bees, they are frequently seen visiting the 

 flowers. And how rapidly do yon think they can make 

 calls ? I once counted those paid by one humming bird to 

 the black sage; it visited sixty-five flowers in one minute. 

 A sage with large crimson flowers is not rare in Southern 

 California, but it is an herb with very disagreeable foliage, 

 and it grows only in shady places, so it is not commonly 

 known except by the humming birds; it keeps all of its 

 honey for them, and they seem to find it readily. 



The blue-curls, which has been mentioned in other 

 chapters, see No. 2, Fig. 15 belongs to the mint family, 

 and if you keep a sharp lookout you are likely to find many 

 other flowers belonging to one of these bilabiate families. 

 This is specially true in the summer time in the mountains, 

 where there are other mints and sages and many kinds of 

 Mimulus and Pentstemon. It is not strange that these 

 flowers of high rank are more common in the late spring 

 and summer, when there are more humming birds and 

 large insects; for probably the success of these families is 

 largely due to the fact that they know so well how to se- 

 cure ample returns for their hospitality. 



150 



