Guests, Welcome and Unwelcome 209 



Human beings can, it is said, detect less than the 

 twenty-millionth part of a grain of musk; but in keenness 

 of scent they are far surpassed by the insect world. 



Where is the man who can detect any difference, by 

 smell or otherwise, between cane-sugar and beet-sugar, 

 when the latter is properly refined? — not, of course, such 

 as one meets with in continental hotels. Yet the bees 

 know well, for if the choice be given them, they will take 

 the cane and leave the beet. 



And ants are not only> as fond of sweets as bees, but 

 will find them out from an immense distance. They have 

 been known to make their way up from the garden to the 

 second story of a house, by means of an outside bell-wire, 

 all for the sake of some dried fruit which they had scented 

 out. They are sure, therefore, to know where nectar may 

 be had, as well as the bees themselves; and yet, what 

 with their crawling, and their tidy habit of constantly 

 cleaning themselves, and their hard coats, which are not 

 suited for carrying pollen, they are some of the least wel- 

 come guests that a flower can have. 



When the ants do get a chance, they make the most of 

 it, and swarm in greedily; but on the whole they are pretty 

 well kept out, now by one means, now by another. 



The snap-dragon, for instance, keeps her mouth so 

 firmly closed that none but the strong humble-bee can 

 force its way in, until, that is, the necessary pollen has 

 been brought. But then, when the seed is made sure, and 

 the ants can do no harm, the lips are unclosed, and they 

 are generously admitted to what remains of the feast, an 

 opportunity of which they do not fail to make use. 



Ants, like other wingless insects, prefer to avoid the 

 dew, and so are not astir very early. Some flowers. 



