222 EVE 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- 



