THE PLANT AND ITS HELPERS 75 



a trap from which they have not sufficient ingenuity 

 to release themselves. So they flutter away their 

 lives in vain endeavours to escape. 



Undoubtedly the largest number of special 

 arrangements in flowers have been made with a 

 view to the reception of bees. In whatever way 

 these extraordinary relations have arisen, the plant 

 could scarcely have secured a more industrious 

 and systematic worker. It has been computed 

 that an average bee will visit three or four hundred 

 blossoms on a summer day, so that even where 

 flowers are in great profusion we may take it 

 that not one will escape attention from the winged 

 visitors. 



The way in which many flowers have been 

 specially designed in order to keep out un- 

 wanted callers has been dealt with elsewhere, 

 but it is interesting to consider the ease with 

 which the right visitor can obtain an entrance. 

 Most people must have watched a humble-bee 

 open that " strong box," the Antirrhinum flower. 

 How convenient is the little platform on which 

 the insect may alight and secure a firm hold with 

 her legs in order that the contrivance may be forced 

 open ! Even as the bee takes her measure of the 

 nectar, she receives a dusting of pollen from the 

 anthers. More ingenious still is the arrangement 



