58 



will select as best adapted for our })ur})ose a Hower of a 

 yellow color with a longitudinal reddish-brown stripe on 

 each of the upper petals. These are the honey guides and 

 they in this example really point direc^tly to the nectary. 

 The (juestion to be solved is how they got there. 



Did the Creator design them expressly for the benetit of 

 nectar-loving insects, or did the insects })aint these ])etals 

 themselves with tlieir own saliva, same as a grasshopper 

 will stain your fingers if you hold him for a moment? It is 

 of course remarkable that insects should ])e so cared for as 

 to have a s})ecial sign-board directing them by the shortest 

 route to the sweets they so much crave ! 



If this }>articular variety was the only one to l)e found, 

 our task would be harder, but as we examine the numerous 

 sorts, we will be very likely to run across a dark colored 

 flower with no honey guides, and whose color is exactly the 

 chocolate or Indian-red of the markings on our yellow 

 example. In the yihice where the honey guides ought to 

 be, the color is of the same as the general hue, only a trifle 

 richer and deeper. This richness of color is (X'casioned hy 

 the irritating influences of the bees in traversing the same 

 route to and from the nectary, thus stimulating the flower 

 to send more of its peculiar })igment to this })oint, same as 

 a little friction or a pinch will bring the blood to the cheek 

 and cause a rosy tint. 



The next step in the })rocess is to change the general 

 color of the flower to yellow. How this is effected by 

 Nature it is unnecessary to ex})lain just now ; suffice it to 

 say that the fading of a color to a lighter tint is one of the 

 most common occurrences in color-change ; we have only 

 to look around and ol)serve the yellow roses fading, some 

 to a clear white on the same shrub, and the pink ones also 

 fading out, and scores of other flowers blanching on their 

 own stems ; blue Houstonia and Myosotis, the pink English 

 daisy and apple-blossom, changing to white, etc., but in 

 our Tropjeolum the flower never ))ecomes })erfectly white ; 



