FLOWERS AND THEIR WORK 41 



from other animals. If we look closely at the bee, we find the 

 body and legs more or less covered with tiny hairs ; especially are 

 these hairs found on the legs. When a plant or animal structure is 

 fitted to do a certain kind of work, we say it is adapted to do that work. 

 The joints in the leg of the bee fit it for complicated movements; 

 the arrangement of stiff hairs along the edge of a concavity in one 

 of the joints of the leg forms a structure well fitted to hold pollen. 

 In this way pollen is collected by the bee and taken to the hive to be 

 used as food. But while gathering pollen for itself, the dust is 

 caught on the hairs and other projections on the body or legs 

 and is thus carried from flower to flower. Thus cross-pollination 

 may be effected. 



Pollination not intended by the Bee. — The cross-pollination of 

 flowers is not planned by the bee ; it is simply an incident in the 

 course of the food gathering. The bee visits a large mmiber of 

 flowers of the same species during the course of a single visit from 

 the hive, and it is then that cross-pollination takes place. 



Suggestions for Field Work. — In any locality where flowers are abundant, 

 try to answer the following questions : How many bees visit the locality 

 in ten minutes ? How many other insects alight on the flowers ? Do bees 

 visit flowers of the same kinds in succession, or fly from one flower on 

 a given plant to another on a plant of a different kind ? If the bee lights 

 on a flower cluster, does it visit more than one flower in the same cluster ? 

 How does a bee alight ? Exactly what does the bee do when it alights ? 



Is Color or Odor in a Flower an Attraction to an Insect ? — Try to decide 

 whether color or odor has the most effect in attracting bees to flowers. 

 Sir John Lubbock tried an experiment which it would pay a number of 

 careful pupils to repeat. He placed a few drops of honey on glass slips 

 and placed them over papers of various colors. In this way he found that 

 the honeybee, for example, could evidently distinguish different colors. 

 Bees seemed to prefer blue to any other color. Flowers of a yellow or flesh 

 color were preferred by flies. It would be of considerable interest for some 

 student to work out this problem with our native bees and with other 

 insects. Test the keenness of sight in insects by placing a white object (a 

 white golf ball will do) in the grass and see how many insects will alight 

 on it. Try to work out some method by which you can decide whether a 

 given insect is attracted to a flower by odor alone. 



The Sight of the Bumblebee. — The large eyes located on the sides of 

 the head are made up of a large number of little units, each of which is 

 considered to be a very simple eye. The largo eyes are therefore called 



