THE WELCOMES OF THE FLOWERS 117 



termined to introduce our red clover into that 

 country, the plant not being native there. They 

 imported American seed, and sowed it, with the 

 result of a crop luxuriant in foliage and bloom, 

 but not a seed for future sowing! Why? Be- 

 cause the American bumblebee had not been con- 

 sulted in the transaction. The clover and the 

 bee are inseparable counterparts, and the plant 

 refuses to become reconciled to the separation. 

 Upon the introduction and naturalization of the 

 American bumblebee, however, the transported 

 clover became reconciled to its new habitat, and 

 now flourishes in fruition as well as bloom. 



Botany and entomology must henceforth go 

 hand-in-hand. The flower must be considered as 

 an embodied welcome to an insect affinity, and all 

 sorts of courtesies prevail among them in the re- 

 ception of their invited guests. The banquet 

 awaits, but various singular ceremonies are en- 

 joined between the cup and the lip, the stamens 

 doing the hospitalities in time-honored forms of 

 etiquette. Flora exacts no arbitrary customs. 

 Each flower is a law unto itself. And how ex- 

 pressive, novel, and eccentric are these social cus- 

 toms ! The garden salvia, for instance, slaps the 

 burly bumblebee upon the back and marks him 

 for her own as he is ushered in to the feast. The 



