PIN-EYES AND THRUM-EYES 57 



admirably insures their due impregnation. Thus 

 each blossom is not only fertilised from another 

 flower, but even from a flower of an alternative type, 

 which is a peculiarly high modification of the ordinary 

 method." 



This beautiful theory, the statement of which we 

 quote from one of Grant Allen's writings, has such 

 an impress of likelihood that practically no one 

 troubles to inquire whether, in fact, the primrose is a 

 bee-flower at all. The curious child who goes and 

 watches by a bank of primroses comes away at last, 

 however great his patience, without having seen a 

 bee visit one of the flowers. Or, shall we say that he 

 sees one or two of these solitary bees that dash 

 about here, there, and everywhere, come zigzagging 

 across this floral milky way to pay a perfunctory 

 visit to half a dozen blossoms? It is unkind of the 

 bees in general to refuse to come and confirm the 

 teacher's interesting lesson, and they have only one 

 excuse for not doing it. There is only one of our 

 social bees, the burly fertiliser of the red clover, that 

 has a tongue long enough to reach the primrose's 

 honey. 



If the bees had taken to fertilising the primrose it 

 is almost certain that the flower would not have 

 remained yellow ; for the bee prefers a blue flower 

 when it can get it, and the primrose happens to be 

 remarkably yielding as regards colour. The cowslip, 

 very different as it is in form and colour, has no 

 higher rank in most botany books than that of a 

 variety of the primrose. The primrose, in order to 

 blossom earlier, keeps the joint-stalk from which the 

 flowers spring beneath the surface of the ground, 



