COLOUR OF FLOWERS ITS INFLUENCE ON BEE LIFE. 295 



Locomotive powers in plant life are very rare, and where they 

 possess these powers it is more for the distribution of fertilised 

 seeds than for the purpose of fertilisation. There are exceptions, 

 I know — the Vallisneria spiralis, for instance. 



The higher order of animals are unisexual ; occasionally there 

 are malformations termed hermaphrodites; but in the plant world 

 the higher orders are unisexual, bisexual, or hermaphrodites — 

 unisexual when the male and the female blooms or organs are on 

 separate plants; bisexual when the male and female organs are 

 in separate flowers but on the same plant, hermaphrodite when 

 the procreative organs are both in the same bloom (Laurels, 1st; 

 pumpkins, corn, &c, 2nd; apples, pears, &c, 3rd). Yet, never- 

 theless, no true flower is hermaphrodite — i.e., not hermaphrodite 

 as the term is applied to the animal kingdom. The staminal and 

 pistiline organs are not abnormal malformations, but both organs 

 are perfect and independent of each other, and as a rule in herma- 

 phrodite plants the anthers become distributive before the stigma 

 becomes receptive, or vice versa ; or, to make it clearer, the recep- 

 tive and distributive organs do not mature at one and the same 

 time in the same flower. 



From this it will be seen how utterly impossible it is, in the , 

 great majority of cases, for the anther, when distributive, to come 

 into juxtaposition with the receptive stigma to effect the necessary 

 discharge of pollen to ensure fructification. I am speaking now 

 only of entomophalous plants. 



Ofttimes in unisexuals that are entomophalous the stammate 

 plant when in bloom is at a considerable distance from the pistiline ; 

 and in bisexuals both genders of flowers mature at the same time 

 but on different parts of the same plants, while in hermaphrodites 

 the sexes may be in close proximity ; nevertheless the male and 

 female organs do not mature at one and the same time, then how 

 can these inert beings become impregnated but by an agent other 

 than itself — a foreign agent? In nearly every case the pollen of 

 entomophalous plants is not dry but powdery as in the case with 

 anemophilous blooms, but heavy and highly adhesive. It is this 

 property of the pollen gathered by bees that enables them to stow 

 it away so neatly in their pollen baskets. Its adhesive nature 

 prevents* its being blown about by winds, and causes an outside 

 agent necessary to transmit it from the male to the female organs. 

 Now comes the question, why are bees attracted to blossoms! 

 I mention bees because they are the only insects that gather and 



