THE FLOWER AND THE BEE 



Other familiar bumblebee-flowers are the beautiful Rhodora 

 canadensis, which is pollinated in spring by queen bumblebees, 

 the only caste of bumblebees then on the wing, for the males 

 and workers do not appear until later (Figs. 44 and 45); the 

 fly-honeysuckle (Lonicera ciliata), also pollinated in May by fe- 

 male bumblebees, which in their haste to get the nectar often 

 cut the buds into shreds; the Tartarian honeysuckle (Loyiicera 

 Tartarica) of the garden (Fig. 39); the bog fly-honeysuckle 

 (Lonicera coendea); the bush-honeysuckle (Diervilla trifida), the 

 yellow flowers of which turn red in fading; the horse-chestnut; 

 the foxglove; and the Gladiolus. 



The garden-bean is largely self -fertilized, but bumblebees 

 visit the flowers more or less; the scarlet runner is also a bum- 

 blebee-flower, although honey-bees are often able to gather 

 a little of the nectar. The lungwort (Pulmonaria officinalis), 

 belladonna (Atropa belladonna), the bearberry (Arctostaphylos 

 Uva-ursi), the wood-betony (Pedicularis sylvatica), gill-over-the- 

 ground (Glechoma hederacea), and largely butter-and-eggs 

 (Linaria vulgaris) are bumblebee-flowers. The scarlet sage 

 (Salvia pratensis), with its walking-beam mechanism for placing 

 the pollen on a bee's back, the dragon's-head (Dracocephalum, 

 3 species), Molucca balm (Moluccella loevis), bugle (Ajuga rep- 

 tans), and several orchids, as the showy orchis (Orchis spec- 

 tabilis), the pink flowers of Pogonia ophioglossoides common in 

 bogs, and Calypso borealis are all pollinated by bumblebees. 

 The pretty flowers of the purple Gerardia (Gerardia purpurea) 

 are abundant in autumn, but they contain little nectar and few 

 bumblebees visit them. Finally there may be added to the 

 list Cerinthe alpina, Scopolia atropoides, and black henbane 

 (Hyoscyamus niger). 



No matter how bizarre or grotesque a bumblebee-flower may 

 be to-day, it is derived from a primitive form that was per- 



84 



