222 EYE SPY 



scious beings ? Yes, manners, unquestionably 

 " bad manners," it would almost seem, in some in- 

 stances, as, for example, in this andromeda blos- 

 som-bell, which, in its perfume and its nectar, de- 

 liberately invites the tiny Andrena bee, only to 

 deluge its little, black, hairy face with a smother- 

 ing shower of dusty pollen. A remarkable style 

 of etiquette, surely, that is, from our human stand- 

 point. But in the realm of Flora the standards 

 of decorum, so far as greeting is concerned, are 

 not governed by artificial whim. There is no 

 " smart set " to dictate and set the fashion for oth- 

 ers less smart to follow. Each individual flower 

 is a law unto itself as to the method of its greet- 

 ing to its especial insect friend. The blossom eti- 

 quette of welcome is literally as " old as the hills," 

 and has come down with little change from an 

 ancestry which dates back perhaps to a period 

 when there were no human " ancestors " on the 

 globe. So these " manners ". are natural and orig- 

 inal, to say the least, even if they are so queer 

 sometimes. What would you think of a friend 

 whose hospitable smile and welcome at his door- 

 way should invite you thither only that your foot 

 might touch a trigger and let fall the floor be- 

 neath you, while at the same time you are half 

 suffocated with an explosion of a bushel of yellow 

 corn meal ? Yet such is something like the spec- 

 tacular reception which the lotus clover, the des- 



