THE FLOWER AND THE BEE 



bee-flower, much sought after by Bombus vagans and B. terri- 

 cola. Its brown-spotted, orange blossoms are shaped like a 

 horn of plenty with the spur inflexed or bent inward beneath 

 it. The flower is suspended horizontally, with the anthers and 

 stigma lying on its upper side, so that when a bee enters the 

 dilated corolla-sac its back is dusted with pollen which is carried 

 away to another flower. It is a matter of some difficulty and 

 delay for bumblebees to enter the flowers, and very likely the 

 short-tongued workers are not able to reach all of the nectar; 

 so after a little while they bite holes in the spurs and steal the 

 sweet contents. On August 10 I examined a large number of 

 flowers, but none of the nectaries were punctured and they were 

 visited normally by Bombus vagans, or the wandering bumble- 

 bee, at the rate of 7 to 12 visits per minute. But during the 

 latter part of August I found hundreds of the spurs perforated 

 and both bumblebees and honey-bees gathering the nectar 

 from these punctures. (This habit led Mueller to call the bum- 

 blebee an "anti-teleologist.") A honey-bee was watched dur- 

 ing 25 successive visits, and not once did it even make a pre- 

 tense of entering the flower; but in every instance it swung 

 itself astride of the spur, pushed its tongue through the punc- 

 ture and became literally a flower-robber. Ten such visits 

 may be made in a minute. (Fig. 42.) 



If after the manner of plants famous in myth and story the 

 Impatiens (fitly called "touch-me-not" in this respect) could 

 speak, what a protest it would utter ! For unknown centuries 

 this floral edifice has been under construction, only at the last 

 to have its usefulness threatened by a change in the habits of 

 its bee visitors. Humming-birds also visit the flower, while 

 small beetles and spiders occasionally seek shelter in the sac. 



But not all bumblebee-flowers are irregularly shaped. The 

 closed gentian and the fringed gentian, both of which are pol- 



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