178 VIGNETTES FROM NATURE. 



of Shakespeare's dreamland. For wild thyme 

 is essentially a bee-flower, and wherever it 

 grows you may see the big burly humble-bees 

 and the slenderer little hive workers, with 

 their honey-bags well distended and their legs 

 clogged by pollen, bustling about eagerly 

 from head to head of the tempting blossoms. 

 The whole labiate kind, to which wild thyme 

 belongs, has been developed in strict correla- 

 tion with the shape and habits of bees. No 

 other family of plants (except the orchids) has 

 flowers more curiously shaped than those of 

 the salvias and horehounds ; certainly no other 

 family is so noticeable for sweet or aromatic 

 scents as this, which includes the sage, mint, 

 thyme, basil, rosemary, balm, hyssop, pat- 

 chouli, marjoram, lavender, and catmint. 

 Such scents are always due to the selective ac- 

 tion of the higher insects, and are found only in 

 the flowers which they most frequent. Indeed, 

 we know geologically of no labiates before 

 the late tertiary period, which is just the time 

 when highly-developed bees began to present 



