Who painted the Flowers ? 33 



frequented flowers are the least conspicuous ? Mignon- 

 ette, for example : it is hard to conceive a flower 

 offering less in the way of show, and certainly none is 

 a greater favourite with bees. Again, many intelligent 

 people might be in the habit of seeing trees all their 

 lives, and yet never advert to the fact that the Sycamore 

 and the Lime bear flowers at all so unobtrusive are 

 they. Yet these flowers are prime favourites with bees. 

 If it be said that the size of the trees renders coloration 

 unnecessary, how, I would ask, can such a position be 

 maintained ? Amid so many other trees which produce 

 no honey, surely a guiding mark ought to be as essential 

 as in the case of blossoms in a field. How, again, 

 account for the fact that so many large trees do produce 

 conspicuous flowers for example, the Horse-Chestnut 

 and the Hawthorn? Again, though it be true that 

 the Lime and the Mignonette bear sweet- smelling 

 flowers, yet the Sycamore, whose flowers are the least 

 conspicuous, is comparatively scentless, while the Lily, 

 for example, and the Violet, are both showy and 

 odoriferous. 



Moreover, as there are colourless flowers that attract 

 insects, so there are brilliant flowers which contain no 

 honey. An instance has been already quoted, namely, 

 the Poppy ; which, however, we are told insects visit for 

 the sake of the pollen. But how, in such a case, can 

 their visits produce <rra$\r-fertilization ? Either in such a 

 flower the stamen and the pistil mature simultaneously, 

 or they do not. If simultaneously, the flower can fer- 

 tilize itself, and an insect visiting it is as likely to 

 dust the stigma with pollen from its own stamens 

 as with that from others. If, on the other hand, 

 the stamens are mature when the pistil is closed, 

 insects will visit the flowers (seeking the pollen of 

 the stamens) only when the pistil is incapable of 

 fertilization. 



But Sir J. Lubbock tells us that in some such in- 

 stances the colours serve as a sort of ignis fatuus to lure 

 insects on a bootless errand. Thus, of the St. John's 



