IOO 



FLASHLIGHTS ON NATURE 



compare it, indeed, to a hive of bees, the leaves 

 representing the workers, while the .five-petalled 

 flowers are analogous to the queen-bees, and the 

 four-petalled blossoms to the husbands or drones. 



Nay, more : those of 

 my readers who have 

 begonia plants of their 

 own may observe for 

 themselves another sin- 

 gular resemblance to 

 the habits and manners 

 of honey-bees. For 

 after the drones have 

 done their work in life 

 by fertilising the queen- 

 bee, the prudent workers 

 sting them to death, as 

 being useless mouths, 

 of no further benefit 

 to the community ; but 

 the queen -bee neces- 

 sarily survives to be- 

 come the mother of 

 young swarms, or future 

 generations. If she were 

 killed, it would be all 

 up with the community. 



Just so with the begonias ; as soon as the male 

 flowers have performed their whole duty in life, 

 by producing and disseminating the grains of 

 pollen which the insects carry away and smear 

 upon the sister blossoms, they break off at the 



NO. 4. MALE BEGONIA FLOWER, 

 FRONT VIEW. 



