"Blossom Hosts and Insect Guests 



consulted. The importation of a few shiploads of 

 bumblebees, howev^er, insured an abundant crop. 

 Thus, when this "breezy hum" of the Bombus is 

 heard no more in our meadows, we must say good- 

 by to the red clover. 



And now, apropos of such an extremity, I am 

 reminded of that remark of Darwin, who traces 

 back a little farther to the source of our obligation. 

 Clover, he reasons, depends upon the number of 

 cats. No cats, no clover. Clover will not produce 

 seed unless its flowers are fertilized by bumble- 

 bees ; the nests of the bees are eagerly destroyed 

 by mice ; cats kill the mice — thus the bees are 

 spared, and having these, the clover is insured. 

 Very good ! "Cats and clover " as a context may 

 be more alliterative, but most of us. who are at all 

 given to sentiment will welcome the interposing 

 links in the chain of cause and effect. 



By what endless devices does Nature thus secure 

 her ends ! The design beneath the construction of 

 a?iy flower we may pluck — often the very com- 

 monest by the roadside — is a profound riddle, often 

 unanswerable until we await the oracle of its chosen 

 mouthpiece, perhaps the one confidant for whom 

 it has been adapting and shaping itself through the 

 ages. 



44. 



