FLOWER POSSIBILITIES 215 



ers, others only blue ones or yellow, does not by 

 any means prove that the plants in question have 

 not the capacity to produce flowers of quite 

 different color. 



We have seen that the colors of wild flowers 

 have been given them by insects. We have noted 

 that the bright colors reds, orange, blues have 

 been assumed by flowers that flourish in the day- 

 time and seek association with the bees ; and that 

 the flowers that consort with night-flying insects, 

 such as moths, are almost universally decked in 

 white or pale yellow hues that make them far 

 more conspicuous in the twilight than the most 

 brilliant scarlet flower would be. 



Most wild flowers of a given species are of a 

 single color, or of a definite arrangement or com- 

 bination of colors. Bees and other insects 

 have learned to distinguish this characteristic 

 color or combination of colors, and to go 

 with certainty from one flower to another 

 of the same species, thus unconsciously serv- 

 ing the flower well by cross-pollenizing its 

 blossoms. 



I have often thought how confusing it must 

 be to the bees on coming to our gardens to find 

 flowers that perhaps are familiar as to perfume 

 and form now arrayed in a dress of unfamiliar 

 hues. But bees, like flowers, can adapt them- 



