THE FLOWER AND THE BEE 



planatioii. Some are more perfect than others, while some have 

 retrograded and lost their earlier structure. But the general 

 principle has been the same, although it has been worked out in 

 manifold ways. (Figs. 31 and 3^.) 



"We are groping here to find 

 What the Thought which underlies 

 Nature's masking and disguise." 



But all bee-flowers are not one-sided (zygomorphous) or irreg- 

 ular. They may be funnel-formed as in the gentians, or urn- 

 shaped as in the checkerberry and blueberry, or even wheel- 

 shaped as in the common borage, or regularly spurred as in the 

 pendulous flowers of the columbine. (Fig. 38.) 



It is a remarkable fact that bee-flowers are more often blue 

 than any other color. Let us look at the colors of these flowers 

 in the Northern States. Of 34 species of violets 17 are blue, 

 4 blue-purple, 6 yellow, and 7 white. Of 197 species belonging 

 to the pea family {Papilionaceop) '24 are blue, 88 blue-purple, 

 13 red, 33 yellow, and 39 white. Of I'^O species of the mint 

 family {Labiatw) 33 are blue, 47 blue-purple, 1*2 red, 4 yellow, 

 and ^24 white. Of the 113 species of the figwort family {Scro- 

 phidoriaceGp) 28 are blue, 3*2 blue-purple, 7 red, 33 j^ellow, and 

 13 white. 



On the other hand, neither bee nor blue flowers occur in the 

 pink and rose families. In the immense orchis family, in which 

 bee-flowers are of comparatively rare occurrence, there is only 

 one blue flower, Vcmda coerulea, from India. In this family 

 red is developed much more easily than blue. It should be 

 added that, when two or more species of bee-flowers belonging 

 to the same genus blossom simultaneously in the same locality, 

 they are frequently unlike in color, as the red, white, and yellow 

 clovers. This diversity of color facilitates the efforts of the 

 bee to remain constant to one species. 



64 



