178 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



to refer these wonders to natural causes. They illus- 

 trate, according to him, the method of nature, not the 

 ' technic ' of a manlike Artificer. The beauty of 

 flowers is due to natural selection. Those that distin- 

 guish themselves by vividly contrasting colours from 

 the surrounding green leaves are most readily seen, 

 most frequently visited by insects, most often fertilised, 

 and hence most favoured by natural selection. Coloured 

 berries also readily attract the attention of birds and 

 beasts, which feed upon them, spread their manured 

 seeds abroad, thus giving trees and shrubs possessing 

 such berries a greater chance in the struggle for exis- 

 tence. 



With profound analytic and synthetic skill, Mr. 

 Darwin investigates the cell-making instinct of the 

 hive-bee. His method of dealing with it is represen- 

 tative. He falls back from the more perfectly to the 

 less perfectly developed instinct from the hive-bee to 

 the humble bee, which uses its own cocoon as a comb, 

 and to classes of bees of intermediate skill, endeavour- 

 ing to show how the passage might be gradually made 

 from the lowest to the highest. The saving of wax is 

 the most important point in the economy of bees. 

 Twelve to fifteen pounds of dry sugar are said to be 

 needed for the secretion of a single pound of wax. The 

 quantities of nectar necessary for the wax must therefore 

 be vast; and every improvement of constructive instinct 

 which results in the saving of wax is a direct profit to 

 the insect's life. The time that would otherwise be 

 devoted to the making of wax, is devoted to the gather- 

 ing and storing of honey for winter food. Mr. Dar- 

 win passes from the humble bee with its rude cells, 

 through the Melipona with its more artistic cells, to 

 the hive-bee with its astonishing architecture. The 

 bees place themselves at equal distances apart upon the 



