INTELLIGENCE OF FLOWERS 



difficulty. The lower lip of the corolla, instead of being sym- 

 metrical and horizontal, is irregular and slanting, so that one 

 side of it is higher by a few millimetres than the other. The 

 humble-bee resting upon it must herself necessarily stand in a 

 sloping position. The result is that her head strikes first one 

 and then the other of the projections of the corolla. There- 

 fore the releasing of the stamens also takes place successively; 

 and, one after the other, their orifices, now freed, strike the 

 insect and sprinkle her with fertilizing dust. 



"When the humble-bee next passes to another flower, she 

 inevitably fertilizes it, because — and I have purposely omitted 

 this detail — what she meets first of all, when thrusting her 

 head into the entrance to the corolla, is the stigma, which 

 grazes her just at the spot where she is about, the moment 

 after, to be struck by the stamens, the exact spot where she has 

 already been touched by the stamens of the flower which she 

 has last left." 



These instances might be multiplied indefinitely; every 

 flower has its idea, its acquired experience which it turns to 

 advantage. When we examine closely their little inventions, 



[ 6i ] 



