162 A COUNTRY READER. 



devices to show a bee where its food is to be 

 found. By their silent beauty and sweet 

 particles of scent, the flowers call to the bee 

 and say, " Come to us, and you will find 

 amidst our colours, sweet nectar which is food 

 for you, and which you can store up for the 

 winter, and live on when our summer life is at 

 an end." 



And the bees, with that wonderful instinct 

 which at present is beyond our knowledge, under- 

 stand these signals of the flowers. 



The bees also confer an enormous benefit on 

 the flowers by their visits. It may be said 

 that bees and flowers form a mutual benefit 

 society. Without the bees and insects the race 

 of flowering trees and plants would weaken and 

 probably die out. Without the flowers the bee 

 would starve and die. 



For while the flowers are feeding the bees, 

 they dust the bees all over with their yellow 

 pollen grains, and in visiting another flower the 

 bees carry these pollen grains to do the work of 

 fertilisation, or cross-fertilisation, as it is termed. 



This cross- fertilisation keeps up the vigour 

 and beauty of future plants and trees. 



By the great and primal law of mutual de- 

 pendence, everything, while seeking its own 

 life and advantage, adds to the life and advan- 

 tage of another. Self and non-self act and react. 



