Juno 28. 1906 



American Itee Journal 



tbey would be all right, but they don't. There is a son ol I 



each side, an.i when the two spacers come together then- will be a 

 space formed varying from a bee-space to nothing, which, ) 

 will be filled with propolis. Perhaps this will better illustrate « hat I 

 mean : 



You see, the two spacers comiog together form that V-space at A, 



which is going to cause trouble. 



The nail or staple spacer does not suit me in many respects, and 



thinking that a spacer having almost a Unife edge for a bearing would 

 be better, 1 experimented a little along that line. 

 I am mailing a sample under separate cover. The few 

 1 have in use are home-made and tedious to make, but 

 I think they could be made at a supply factory at a 

 small cost. You will see by this one that they are 

 both a side and end spacer, and are put on each end of 

 the frame at opposite corners. The few I have are 

 very satisfactory, and as soon as possible I will use 

 them entirely. The bearing is so small that there is 

 practically no trouble from propolis. 



If you see any fault with this spacer please say so. 

 Palermo, Ont., April 27. H. A. Smith. 



With me the Root spacer is an experiment, but looks 

 good. I can report later. The objection to a square top 

 and bottom projection is that it would catch in removing 

 the frame or replacing- it in the hive. The spacer is, to me, 

 no better than a staple. My top-bars are only >-inch deep, 

 5/16 below the lug; end-bars % -inch thick. Your spacer 

 has a V-inch bend which throws it just inside the end-bar. 

 With ' s inch bend it might be all right, but difficult to 

 fasten to the frame. I do not want end-spacers ; prefer a 

 full-length lug. 



The Bee's Acute Sense of Smell 



A long time has passed since the days when I began 

 my study of bees and flowers by way of preparing- my thesis 

 for the doctor's degree, writes Gaston Bonnier, of the 

 Academie des Sciences in La Revue. I had been taught 

 that the reciprocal adaptation between insects and flowers, 

 and the attraction of bees by the colors of flowers, were 

 well established facts. I was convinced in advance, and 

 with the enthusiasm of youth I believed that my observa- 

 tions and experiments would at all points confirm these 

 propositions by lending them new proofs. The good 

 Decaisne, somewhat skeptical on this point, concealed his 

 suspicions and encouraged me in my work. When I came 

 to see him, after several months spent in Normandy with a 

 Norman bee-keeper, I brought him the first results of my 

 researches and confess genuine despair and the beginnings 

 of disillusionment. All my observations and all my experi- 

 ments contradicted the theory of reciprocal adaptation, and 

 especially contradicted the role attributed to the colors of 

 flowers as sign-boards to attract the bees. " Keep on with 

 your work," said Decaisne, hardly able to conceal his satis- 

 faction. " Keep on with your work ; it is more interesting 

 than you believe." 



Interesting Experiments. 



I accordingly kept on. After numerous observations, I 

 made out a list of plants whose dark or green colors are 

 scarcely visible at all, but which are all richly stocked with 

 honey and constantly visited by bees or other insects in 

 search of nectar. To this I added that of the trees on 

 whose leaves the bees alighted in search of sweets — leaves 

 colored precisely as are the honey-bearing leaves about 

 them — and all the plants to which honey-seeking insects go 

 to find nectar, apart from the flowers, in various portions 

 of the plant which have no color are almost invisible, yet 

 which contain the "extra-floral " honey. 



Alongside this list I prepared another, equally long, 

 containing the names of brightly-colored flowers with bril- 

 liant petals, but having no secretion of sugary liquids, and 

 consequently never visited by bees or other insects in search 

 of honey. 



As for the experiments, I made extremely varied ones, 

 and they led always to the same result, namely, that there 

 was no correlation between the presence of a bright color 

 and the bees' search for sweets. I cite a single example. I 

 placed little squares of different colors on the uniform 

 green background of a field, each square, whether red on a 

 green background or green on a green background, being 

 at the same distance from the hives. Then I placed the 



same quantity of syrup or honey in the middle of each 

 square. The bees discovered these various deposits of 

 sweet liquid with unvaried promptitude, and collected in 

 practically the same number upon the different squares, the 

 color having absolutely no influence upon their search. The 

 red on the green background attracted them no more than 

 did the green on the green background, or the syrup on the 

 grass itself in an equal quantity. 



The Scientist's Deductions. 



The result of all my experiments was as follows : 



"There is no relation between the development of color 

 in flowers and that of nectar in flowers." 



" Under like conditions the most brilliantly colored 

 flowers are not the ones most frequently visited by the in- 

 sects." 



" The visibility of flowers is in no wise proportionate to 

 their adaptation for cross-fertilization." 



"Insects collect in the greater number wherever the 

 honey is most abundant, the richest in sugar, and the most 

 convenient to get at." 



Then appeared my " Memoire sur les Nectaries," in- 

 cluding a chapter on bees and the colors of flowers, where- 

 upon I was loaded with a wonderful assortment of unpleas- 

 ant epithets, coming chiefly from German scientists. In 

 the Revue Scientifique appeared an unsigned article in 

 which I was ferociously assailed, though the author did not 

 take the trouble to cite a single observation or a single ex- 

 periment in contradiction to my conclusions. I went to see 

 M. Alglave, who then edited that review. He gave me no 

 explanation, and simply said : " You are attacking a theory 

 sustained by Darwin ; therefore you are not one of us ; that 

 is enough." 



Why can't a man be an evolutionist without having to 

 accept Sprengel's theory of the adaptation of flowers ? That 

 is a mystery, but the fact remains. These adepts are more 

 extreme royalists than the King himself, for Darwin always 

 made cautious reservations, and cited facts in contradiction 

 to his theory ; but, according to my enemies, the sacred 

 edifice of evolution must not be touched even when one 

 seeks to rid it of an ill-cut stone that spoils its beauty. 



And yet no experiment worthy of the name, and no 

 serious observation whatever, were brought forward to con- 

 tradict the results I have just stated. 



Contrary Opinions. 



Although certain authors, like MacLeod and Felix Pla- 

 teau, concluded from their observations and experiments 

 that the colors of flowers had no appreciable influence in 

 attracting the bees, others expressed a contrary opinion, 

 and very recently Mile. Wery reached the astonishing con- 

 clusion that the colors of flowers exerted an attractive force 

 of 80 percent as compared with the attraction exerted by 

 honey, pollen, and fragrance combined. 



The researches of M. Felix Plateau, who is a professor 

 of the University of Ghent, are really important, as his ob- 

 servations are very numerous and his experiments extremely 

 varied. The author begins by an extremely detailed veri- 

 fication of one of the points I had demonstrated, that the 

 bees show no preference and no antipathy for the different 

 colors displayed by the flowers of different varieties of the 

 same species. On the other hand, M. Plateau takes up the 

 list I made of plants with dark or green flowers that are 

 laden with honey and frequently visited by insects, and 

 corrects it at certain points quite justly, at the same time 

 extending it considerably according to his direct observa- 

 tions and those of several other naturalists, among them 

 MacLeod. 



But the Belgian scientist did not content himself with 

 mere verifications. He manufactured artificial flowers (the 

 cleverest imitations possible — no matter what his enemies 

 may say — in paper or in cloth), and the bees never came 

 near them. He made others out of living leaves with nat- 

 ural vegetable odor, but no bright color. If honey was put 

 into them the bees came to these sham green flowers ; if the 

 honey was taken away thev cut them off their calling list. 

 If no sweetened liquid was put into them at all the bees 

 gave them the cold shoulder from the first. 



Then the honey-bearing portion of natural flowers was 

 recovered without injuring the gorgeously colored corolla, 

 and insects in search of honey never alighted upon these 

 mutilated flowers. If, on the other hand, bright and nectar- 

 laden flowers were hidden away under green foliage, the 



