214 SEPTEMBER 



heat in crossing the tropics, but a second consign- 

 ment fared better, and acclimatisation is said to have 

 been successfully carried out. Now if the blue 

 salvia had any agricultural value with us, we should 

 have to import its suitable insect visitor, seeing that 

 our crafty bumbles have learnt how to steal honey 

 without disturbing the pollen cells. It is a curious 

 fact that this trick is not universally known among 

 the bees. In some gardens all the blossoms will be 

 found to have their throats cut in others, none. 

 I ought to add that I attribute this burglary to 

 bumble-bees without having detected one in the act 

 of committing it, but I have watched them treating 

 the long spurs of toadflax in the same way. 



LXVII 

 Talking of Buckinghamshire brings to mind a lay 



which I used to hear chanted when I 

 A Bucking- 

 hamshire was a boy, and am never likely to near 



Ballad , . j 



again. It went to a sleepy kind of 



tune, and was a great favourite in wayside taverns 

 in the long cool evenings. 



< THE SAD STOKY OF WILLIAM SMAIL 



* 'Twere in the woods o' Bookenhamshire, 



Right-fal-ooral-ooral-ee, 

 'Twere in the woods o 5 Bookenhamshire, 

 Right-fal-ooral-ee, 



