MARRIAGE AMONG THE CLOVERS 107 



on one blossom which they unconsciously rub off 

 on the receptive surface of the next. In one word, 

 Dutch clover encourages bees for its own purposes, 

 because they are useful to it, while it places ob- 

 stacles in the way of smaller and useless insects, 

 by burying its honey in a deep tube. 



The head of Dutch clover shown in No. 6 is one 

 which has been caught just at the very first moment 

 of flowering. The florets or blossoms which make 

 up the head begin opening from without and below, 

 inward and upward. Thus in this head the outer 

 and lower florets have opened, while the inner and 

 upper ones are still in the bud. When a bee visits 

 such a head of clover, he comes to it first from 

 another head of the same kind ; for bees do not 

 usually mix their liquors ; on one round of visits 

 they confine themselves, as a rule, to a single 

 species of flower only, and they probably store 

 the honey of each kind in separate cells, just as 

 we ourselves in our wine-cellars keep one bin for 

 champagne, another for claret, and a third for 

 Burgundy. The bee thus begins with the outer 

 flower of the head, which he fertilises with pollen 

 from the last plant he visited ; he then goes on 

 to the second row, where he dusts himself over 

 with pollen for another flower-head ; and the buds 

 in the centre he leaves severely unnoticed. 



As soon as he flies away, a very curious thing 

 begins to happen. The flowers which he has 

 unconsciously fertilised close over their seed-vessel, 

 and grow gradually brown or withered. At the 

 same time, as you see in No. 7, they turn down 



