SEPTEMBER 173 



Nobody could guess what these were wanted for, till it 

 came out that the bees were intended for exportation 

 to New Zealand, where red clover always died out for 

 want of bumbles to fertilise it. The first cargo died of 

 heat in crossing the tropics, but a second consignment 

 fared better, and acclimatisation is said to have been 

 successfully carried out. Now if the blue salvia had 

 any agricultural value with us, we should have to 

 import its suitable insect visitor, seeing that our crafty 

 bumbles have learnt how to steal honey without dis- 

 turbing the pollen cells. It is a curious fact that this 

 trick is not universally known among the bees. In 

 some gardens all the blossoms will be found to have 

 their throats cut in others, none. I ought to add 

 that I attribute this burglary to bumble-bees without 

 having detected one in the act of committing it, but I 

 have watched them treating the long spurs of toadflax 

 in the same way. 



LXVII 



Talking of Buckinghamshire brings to mind a lay 

 which I used to hear chanted when I was a boy, 

 and am never likely to hear again. It A Buckingham- 

 went to a sleepy kind of tune, and was s^eBaiiad 

 a great favourite in wayside taverns in the long cool 

 evenings. 



< THE SAD STORY OF WILLIAM SMAIL 



' 'Twere in the woods o' Bookenhamshire, 



Right-fal-ooral-ooral-ee, 

 'Twere in the woods o' Bookenhamshire, 

 Right-fal-ooral-ee, 



