188 STONECEOPS 



at once ; a quick run and an angry buzz from the bee 

 awoke him to a sense of the situation, and he cleared 

 off directly. 



Now, how do butterflies learn to dread a bee ? How 

 do they know that bees are armed ? It can hardly be 

 by experience, for no butterfly could survive the stab 

 of a bee's sting. It is part of the mystery enveloping 

 the intelligence of animals not personally educated by 

 their parents. One can understand, or at least imagine, 

 how birds and mammals, sedulous in attention to their 

 offspring, can communicate to them caution, the fruit 

 of the experience of countless generations; but the 

 phases of insect life the egg abandoned by the parent 

 the stages of larva, pupa, and imago seem specially 

 calculated to interfere with hereditary knowledge, and 

 to prohibit the communication of instruction. Instinct 

 is an obscure, as well as a much misused term ; this 

 avoidance of bees by butterflies seems to be an instance 

 of pure instinct, unless, indeed, the countenance of a 

 bee bears such a malevolent expression that it acts as 

 a timely warning to the unarmed insect. 



To return to stonecrops: let any one who desires 

 to possess Sedum spurium and spectabile be careful 

 to get the bright-coloured varieties of each. All are 

 equally hardy, grow like chickweed, and are easily and 

 quickly propagated by cuttings or 'pinchings'; but 

 there are some worthless, dull-coloured varieties which 

 should be avoided. 



