FLOWERS IN RELATION TO BEES. 185 



themselves, their colour and beauty become less and 

 less marked, the plants themselves degenerate, become 

 poor and weak, and the whole race is in danger of 

 extinction. And thus, even in those cases where the 

 whole of the flower is ripe together, it is of the 

 greatest importance that visits of bees and other in- 

 sects should take place, for the pollen is thus carried 

 about from flower to flower, and no one flower lives 

 and dies, as it were, by itself. Every flower in some 

 way helps and benefits its neighbour. 



And now, further, from what has been said, we 

 can see more clearly the important use, not only of 

 bees, but of honey. It is, we know, very useful to 

 ourselves, but we can understand now that it is much 

 more useful to the flowers, — their very existence de- 

 pending upon it, for, were it not for the honey, bees 

 and other insects would not visit the flower, and it 

 would remain unfertilised, and thus would never have 

 any ripe seed. The flower holds out the attraction of 

 its sweets ; it invites the bee : ' Come, and I will give 

 you my honey, and you, in return, shall bring me the 

 pollen I want ; and then shall take of mine, and carry 

 it to other flowers now in need of it.' And thus the 

 great purpose of Nature is fulfilled. 



The colour of the flower also does its part in the 

 work, according to the law that everything in Nature 

 has some object and reason of existence. You re- 

 member that I explained how we know that bees have 

 some knowledge of colour, and so are attracted to the 

 flowers by the colour, as well as by the honey. And, 

 although many flowers, without any beauty of colour, 

 give abundance of honey, it is a remarkable fact, — 



