The Golden Rule for Flowers 



93 



dust out upon the insect; in another — the Kalmia, or 

 American mountain-laurel— the stamens rise up from the 

 petals on which they usually lie flat, and close round the 

 insect, clasping it and impressing their pollen upon its 

 body. 



But the various arrangements are so numerous that it 

 is impossible to do more here than give the merest outline 

 sketch of them, and for fuller particulars the reader must 

 be referred elsewhere. 



We have confined our attention hitherto chiefly to bees, 

 because they are the most generally useful of insects, and 

 few flowers seem to come amiss to them if only they can 

 reach the nectar. But there are just a few flowers which 

 they actually avoid. Bees of all kinds, for instance, shun 

 the crown-imperial, though it blossoms in March and 

 April, when bee food is not plentiful. Gilbert White 

 noticed a small bird like a white-throat running up the 

 stems of this plant and plunging its head into the bells in 

 search of nectar, so it may be that it is fertilized in this 

 way, for it certainly sets seed. 



Other flowers disliked by bees are the passion-flower 

 and dahlia — which seem to stupefy and often kill them, 

 and above all, the oleander, whose nectar is fatal. A 

 traveler in Hungary and Dalmatia, where the oleander 

 abounds, could not remember ever to have seen bee, moth, 

 or butterfly visiting the blossoms. And yet their bright 

 rose-colored petals seem to say, in the language of flow- 

 ers, that they need the help of insects, and those, too, of 

 a high order; for colors have much meaning in the flower 

 language, and show to some considerable extent what kind 

 of insects are wanted for the blossoms which display them. 



White, for instance, serves to attract insects of all 



