AQTUMN FLOWERS 213 



never received the slightest protection. This salvia 

 possesses a beautiful mechanism to secure cross- 

 fertilisation. Insert a stem of grass or a hairpin 

 between the lips of the flower, and push it gently 

 down the throat, and you will see the long stamens 

 move down from the upper lobe of the corolla so as 

 to deposit ripe pollen on the back of the supposed 

 insect visitor. The honey glands lie far down at 

 the base of the pistil, and our bumble-bees find it 

 very difficult to reach it, for they are corpulent, and 

 the passage is narrow. In Mexico, the native 

 country of this plant, no doubt it is visited either 

 by some insect of slenderer build or by humming- 

 birds. But if our bumble-bees have no waists 

 to speak of, they have brains; and they have 

 discovered the trick of biting through the neck of 

 the flower, opposite the honey store, and sucking it 

 without further trouble. Some years ago a new 

 industry sprang up in Buckinghamshire. Lads were 

 sent to collect bumble-bees alive, for which they 

 received fourpence a-piece. Nobody could guess 

 what these were wanted for, till it came out that 

 the bees were intended for exportation to New 

 Zealand, where red clover always died out for want 

 of bumbles to fertilise it. The first cargo died of 



