Bramble-bees and Others 



changes give cause for reflection. When my 

 geranium-flowers were devastated, how had 

 the obtrusive Bee, untroubled by the profound 

 dissimilarity between the petals, snow-white 

 here, bright-scarlet there, how had she learnt 

 her trade? Nothing tells us that she herself 

 was not for the first time exploiting the plant 

 from the Cape; and, if she really did have 

 predecessors, the habit had not had time to 

 become inveterate, considering the modern 

 importation of the geranium. Where again 

 did the Silvery Megachile, for whom I 

 created an exotic shrubbery, make the ac- 

 quaintance of the lopezia, which comes from 

 Mexico? She certainly Is making a first start. 

 Never did her village or ours possess a stalk 

 of that chilly denizen of the hot-house. She 

 Is making a first start; and behold her 

 straightway a graduate, versed In the art of 

 carving unfamiliar foliage. 



People often talk of the long apprentice- 

 ships served by instinct, of its gradual ac- 

 quirements, of its talents, the laborious work 

 of the ages. The Megachiles affirm the ex- 

 act opposite. They tell me that the animal, 

 though Invariable in the essence of its art. Is 

 capable of innovation In the details; but at the 



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