LUTHER BURBANK 



Whoever realizes this truth will not be likely 

 to doubt that the bee, in common with other 

 insects, has good olfactory organs and an eye for 

 the discernment of color. Yet there have been 

 entomologists, even in recent times, who have 

 questioned whether insects really have the sense 

 of smell, and, others who have challenged their 

 color sense. 



As to the latter point, whoever has taken 

 the trouble to observe the maneuverings of an 

 individual bee in the flower garden, and has seen 

 it pass from one red flower to another, confining 

 its visits exclusively to blossoms of one hue, will 

 have gained sufficient evidence that the bee is by 

 no means color blind. 



As to the sense of smell, if further evidence 

 than that supplied by every-day observation of 

 the visits of insects to perfumed flowers were 

 required, it is furnished by an interesting and 

 remarkable experiment made by Professor Jacques 

 Loeb, formerly of California University, now of 

 the Rockefeller Institute in New York. 



Professor Loeb placed a female butterfly in a 

 cigar box. Closing the box he suspended it in 

 mid-air between the ceiling and floor of a room, 

 and opened the window. 



"At first," says Professor Loeb, "no butterfly 

 of this species was visible far or near. In less 



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