34 Who painted the Flowers ? 



Worts 1 he says: "They secrete no honey, but are 

 frequently visited by insects, partly for the sake of the 

 pollen, partly, perhaps, in a vain search for honey." And 

 of the Restharrow, " Ononis does not secrete honey, 

 . . . [it] is exclusively fertilized by bees, and H. Miiller 

 has repeatedly seen male bees visiting this species in 

 a vain search for honey." 2 



Now on development principles this should not be. 

 Not only have flowers been so modified as to get the 

 best service from bees, but bees have in their turn 

 been made fit to drive the best possible bargain with 

 flowers. "If flowers," says Sir John Lubbock, 3 "have 

 been modified with reference to the visits of insects, 

 insects also have in some cases been gradually modified, 

 so as to profit by their visits to flowers. This is specially 

 the case with reference to ... bees and butterflies." 

 And Mr. Grant Allen 4 lays down that "the eyes of the 

 bees are so developed " as to be attracted by the colour 

 which flowers display. But if they are so developed it 

 surely should follow that they have by this time come to 

 know the colours which signify " no honey " as well as 

 those which give token of much. The Restharrow, for 

 example, is a flower of very peculiar hue, one that can be 

 distinguished by a human eye at a considerable distance. 

 Bees should have by this time learnt that this particular 

 colour means " Honey-seekers, apply elsewhere ! " 



But not satisfied with the general assertion that colour 

 serves only to advertise and attract, Sir John Lubbock 

 goes to declare that the actual disposition of the colours 

 is obviously regulated by the same conditions: "the 

 very arrangement of the colours, the circular bands and 

 radiating lines . . . are all arranged with reference to 

 the visits of insects." In other words, we are asked to 

 believe that the varieties of colour are always only 

 nature's finger-posts indicating to the visitor where is 

 the store of which he is in quest. 



* P. 69. 2 P. 84. 3 P. 12, 



4 Vignettes from Nature, p. 86, 



