MARRIAGE OF FLOWERS. 



that the grains of pollen which enter into the same mass should 

 be homogeneous, and consequently fitted by their physical pro- 

 perties to cohere with greater facility and firmness. 



153. But connected with this, another important purpose of 

 nature is fulfilled, which must not here pass without special notice. 

 The principle, so fruitful in important social consequences among 

 animals, that the offspring owes its parentage jointly to two 

 individuals of different sexes, or, in other words, must always 

 have a father and a mother, equally prevails in the vegetable 

 kingdom. There also are the gentlemen and ladies, there also 

 are the loves which unite them, loves which as well as those of 

 superior orders of beings have supplied a theme for poets.* Now 

 among the many other interesting offices with which the Author 

 of nature has invested the little creatures, which form the subject 

 of this notice, not the least singular is that of being the priests 

 who celebrate the nuptials of the flowers. It is the bee literally 

 which joins the hands and consecrates the union of the fair virgin 

 lily and the blushing maiden rose with their respective bride- 

 grooms. The grains of pollen which we have been describing are 

 these brides and bridegrooms, and are transported on the bee 

 from the male to the female flower ; the happy individuals thus 

 united in the bands of wedlock being the particular grains, which 

 the bee lets fall from its body on the flower of the opposite sex, as 

 it passes through its blossom. 



154. And here we find another circumstance to excite our admi- 

 ration of the wise laws of that Providence, which cares for the well- 

 being of a little flower, as much as for that of a great lord of the 

 creation. If the bee wandered indifferently from flower to flower 

 without selection, the gentlemen of one species would be mated 

 with the ladies of another, hybrid breeds would ensue, and the 

 confusion of species would be the consequence. But the bee, as 

 knowing this, flies from rose to rose, or from lily to lily, but never 

 from the lily to the rose, or from the rose to tlie lily. 



155. When a bee, laden with pollen, arrives in the hive, she some- 

 times stops at the entrance, and leisurely detaching it piecemeal 

 from her legs, devours it bit by bit. Sometimes she passes into 

 the hive and walks over the combs, or stands stationary upon 

 them, but whether moving or standing never ceases flapping her 

 wings. The noise thus produced, a sort of buzzing, seems to be 

 a call understood by the populace within hearing, for three or four 

 of them immediately approach and surround her. They begin 

 to aid her to disembarrass herself of her load, each taking and 

 swallowing more or less of her ambrosia until the whole is 

 disposed of. 



* Darwin's Loves of the Plants. 



79 



