12 ON FLOWERS AND INSECTS. |>ect. 



Came again at 10.47, and returned at 10.51 



„ 11 „ 11-8 



„ 11.17 „ 11-20 



11.34 „ 11-37 



11.50 „ H.53 



12.5 „ 12.8 



and so on till 6 in the evening; thus working 

 twelve hours like a man, and performing more than 

 a hundred journeys to and fro. 1 This, however, was in 

 autumn ; in summer they make overtime, and work on 

 till late in the evening. 



In order then to test the power of bees to appreciate 

 colour, I placed some honey on a slip of glass, and put 

 the glass on coloured paper. For instance, I put some 

 honey in this manner on a piece of blue paper, and when 

 a bee had made several journeys, and thus become ac- 

 customed to the blue colour, I placed some more honey 

 in the same manner on orange paper about a foot away. 

 Then during one of the absences of the bee I transposed 

 the two colours, leaving the honey itself in the same place 

 as before. The bee returned as usual to the place where 

 she had been accustomed to find the honey ; but though 

 it was still there, she did not alight, but paused for a 

 moment, and then dashed straight away to the blue 



1 The industry and rapidity with which bees work is very remark- 

 able. They will visit from twenty to twenty-five flowers in a 

 minute, which makes over 1,000 in an hour, or say 10,000 in a 

 day. Mr. Darwin watched carefully certain flowers, and satisfied 

 himself that each one was visited by bees at least thirty times in 

 a day. The result is, that even where flowers are very numerous — 

 as, for instance, on heathy plains and in clover fields — every one is 

 visited during the day. Mr. Darwin carefully examined a large 

 number of flowers in such cases, and found that every single one 

 had been so visited. 



