LUTHER BURBANK 
Where did the geranium get its color? 
“From the bees,” said Mr. Burbank. 
Just as the cactus covered itself with spines 
until it had built up an effective armor, in the same 
way the geranium, by easy stages, has worked out 
a color scheme to attract the bees upon which it 
depends to effect its reproduction. 
In Mr. Burbank’s yard there grows, as this is 
written, a Chinese arum whose color and whose 
scent reveal a different history. 
Unlike most common flowers which advertise 
to bees and birds and butterflies, this plant sends 
its message to the flies. 
Flies feed on carrion. The nectar of clover is 
not to their liking and the brilliant colors of our 
garden flowers fail to attract them. Our refuse 
is their food, and they are guided to it by colors 
and scents which are offensive to us. 
So this Chinese carrion lily, as it has been 
named—stranded at some time in its history, 
perhaps, in some place where flies were its only 
available messengers of reproduction, or blooming 
at a period when other means were not within 
its reach—has bedecked its spathe with a rich 
and mottled purple—in color and in texture 
resembling, from a distance, the color and 
texture of a decaying piece of liver. 
[80] 
