212 t>e Cfarfcen's 



species of bee for the variety specified, that on 

 placing a large bunch composed of four other 

 varieties of the bee-larkspur side by side with 

 Wheelerii and experimenting with nearly a 

 dozen different bees, in every case the insects 

 when intercepted by the foreign flowers merely 

 alighted on them for an instant, and, without in- 

 serting their proboscides, at once deserted them 

 for the variety they were frequenting. I have 

 been unable to determine whether it is the pe- 

 culiar shade or some special odor of the flower 

 which causes it to be sought out above the 

 others, or whether it is on account of its being 

 richer in honey. Besides this species I find 

 other principal visitors in Bombus terrestris and 

 the smaller bumble-bee, though none nearly as 

 numerous as the large black species. B. ter- 

 restris also usually obtains his sweets from the 

 outside of the nectary ; but the smaller bumble- 

 bee generally draws his nectar in the legitimate 

 way. An occasional honey-bee searches for 

 sweets through the aperture which has been 

 made for him by a stronger lancet than his own. 

 With regard to the perforation of the corolla 

 by bees, Darwin states that those plants, the 

 fertilization of which actually depends on insects 

 entering the flowers, will fail to produce seed 

 when their nectar is stolen from .the outside ; 



