126 A PHILOSOPHER WITH NATURE 



colour in questionable taste, but refined yet 

 business-like in appearance there is a general look 

 about her which stamps her at once as belonging to 

 the highest type of the insect race. We do not enter- 

 tain a proper opinion of the importance of the 

 little creature. In our dull way we are inclined to 

 estimate her place in the world by the amount of 

 sugar-water she and her tribe can contribute in the 

 year, reserving a shrewd suspicion in the backgound 

 that if the whole species were to be extinguished 

 to-morrow it might unaccountably happen in these 

 days of Yankee enterprise that the supply of honey 

 in the market would be in no way diminished. But 

 we greatly underrate the importance of our little 

 friend. If the British nation were to be suddenly 

 blotted out of the world, the even tenor of nature's 

 ways would be very little disturbed ; and, whatever 

 the political world might do, the natural world 

 would soon go on as smoothly and indifferently as 

 if nothing had happened. But if our little friend 

 the bee were suddenly to cease to exist, who shall 

 describe the desolation and confusion which would 

 invade the harmony of nature ? How many shy 

 flower- virgins, in plain and hillside, would droop and 

 pine for her coming ! How many noble, long- 

 pedigreed families in wood and valley, finding life 

 insupportable, would give up the struggle for exist- 

 ence, and become extinct ! How would nature 

 herself change her brightest hues and dress herself 

 in sombre colours to mourn our little friend ! 



In these days of popular science it is hardly neces- 

 sary to make more than passing reference to the 

 part which the bee plays in nature. In the vegetable 

 world it is a vital necessity that the fertilizing pollen 



