MAIN RESEARCHES OF PLATEAU. 161 



ing the transparence. For an adhesive, pure gum arabic alone was used, 

 since it never attracts insects, and for stuffed parts, only cork, wadding, or 

 tow. Paste anthers were avoided and all delicate parts, such as disk flowers, 

 were made of paper cut into a fringe. At the time of each experiment, all 

 artificial flowers were provided with natural foliage. 



When 21 artificial flowers of Crocus, 10 yellow and 11 white, were placed 

 in a bed of normal flowers of C. luteus and vernus, they received but one 

 visit, that of a muscid, and two inspections from Osmia, in the course of 

 three experimental periods, in spite of abundant, visits to the normal flowers. 

 In the case of Viola odorata, the imitations received two visits from Vanessa 

 and 11 inspections from Osmia in 47 visits, while Apis ignored them entirely. 

 Paper flowers of Althea rosea were provided in one series with stamens of 

 commerce, afterwards found to contain much starch and some dextrin- 

 like substance, while in the second series, fringed paper was employed for 

 the stamens to avoid the possibility of attraction by the starch. Two art- 

 ificial stems with 6 white and 7 rose flowers were attached to 2 out of 4 

 plants with the buds still closed. Eight insects landed on the imitation 

 flowers, 7 merely inspected them, and 15 ignored them. When the arti- 

 ficial clusters were placed near natural ones the latter yielded 55 visits 

 to 3 inspections of the former in one case and 50 visits to but 4 inspections 

 in the other. In the experiment given from the second series an artificial 

 cluster of 6 flowers was placed 4 meters in front of natural ones bearing 

 20 flowers. One Apis and Bombus and 5 Prosopis inspected the false clusters. 



Three cloth flowers of Papaver orientalis were arranged among unopened 

 buds, but out of 45 insects, only 3 individuals of Pieris inspected them. 

 When placed in competition with a bed of Myosotis alpestris, 3 such flowers 

 secured no attention from the honey-bee. A mixture of 4 normal flowers 

 with 3 artificial ones yielded 51 visits to the former and 1 visit and 4 in- 

 spections by Apis to the latter, while in the five experiments there were 

 but 10 inspections or visits to the artificial flowers as compared with 198 

 visits to normal ones. Six artificial heads of Scabiosa atropurpurea were 

 placed at the edge of a cluster containing more than 60 natural heads, 

 receiving 4 inspections to 53 visits to the latter. When the imitations 

 were placed a meter in front of the cluster, they received 5 inspections 

 to 36 visits. When imitation heads of Dahlia variabilis were attached 

 at the proper level to stalks not yet in bloom, 4 individuals of Apis, 1 of 

 Megachile, 4 small bees, 2 muscids, and 1 Lucilia inspected them, out of 

 the host of insects in the garden. The 9 artificial heads were next fastened 

 on stalks bearing 3 normal heads in full bloom, with the result that 28 

 insects visited the latter directly and 10 passed near the imitations without 

 noticing them. Twelve insects went directly to the latter and 3 visited 

 them after a normal head, all of these merely making an inspection, with 

 the exception of 3 butterflies. The same 9 imitations were placed 2 meters 

 before 8 plants bearing 18 heads, and the number of inspections was con- 

 siderably decreased, namely, to 4 out of 51, as would be expected from 

 the distance between the two groups. 



The effect of grouping on the response to artificial flowers was especially 

 well shown by the experiments with Zinnia elegans. When 20 imitations 

 were placed 3 meters from a plot of this plant, they received 2 inspections 



