Who painted the Floivers ? 37 



Finally, not to multiply instances, I take the case of 

 the Violet. This produces two kinds of flowers ; one, 

 in spring, the well-known odoriferous and handsome 

 blossom which is visited by bees : the other in late 

 summer, minute, inconspicuous, with neither scent nor 

 show, and unvisited by insects. Yet it is the latter kind 

 and not the former which produces the bulk of seed ; 

 "in fact," says Sir John Lubbock, "the Pansy is the 

 only one of our English species [out of five] in which 

 the showy flowers generally produce seed." 1 The fact 

 speaks for itself. Sir John can only suggest that the 

 showy flowers are useful "in securing an occasional 

 cross." 



Such theoretical suggestions are one thing : the laying 

 down of a dogmatic proposition, like that quoted at 

 starting, is quite another : and enough has, I think, been 

 by this time said to show that the facts in our possession 

 do not by any means warrant such dogmatism. 2 



If this be so, and if even so careful and observant an 

 author has allowed himself to be hurried too fast by the 

 exigencies of theory, it is scarcely necessary to dwell on 

 the more extreme views of less scientific writers. Mr. 

 Grant Allen, for instance, draws out a chromatic scale 

 of the likings of bees. Their favourite colour, he tells 

 us, 3 is blue. "Blue flowers are, as a rule, specialized for 

 fertilization by bees, and bees therefore prefer this colour ; 

 while conversely the flowers have at the same time 

 become blue because that was the colour which the bees 

 prefer." This, if it means anything, means that blue 

 flowers contain more honey than others ; otherwise the 

 bees would be credited with a taste in colours for their 

 own sake, which would at once destroy the utilitarian 

 theory and bring the coloration question back to the 



1 P. 58. 



2 Plants growing in meadows where they are liable to be cut 

 down, as the Lady's Mantle and Mouse-ear Chickweed, have like- 

 wise adopted this device of producing cleistoganions^ or incon- 

 spicuous, blossoms. 



3 Colours of Flowers, p. 19. 



