Crocuses 29 
most cases is vitalized not by the pollen of 
the flower in which it is formed, but by the 
pollen from some other flower of the same species. 
And even those flowers which can make shift 
to get along with home-made pollen achieve better 
results with the imported article. 
Thus the pistil of the crocus will form larger 
and stronger seeds if it can get pollen from a 
sister blossom, or, better still, from another crocus 
plant altogether. So the flowers wish to send the 
yellow powder about, from one to another, for 
their mutual benefit, and the bee behaves as if she 
had been taken into their confidence. She has 
flown out of our yellow crocus now, as dusty as 
a miller, and has gone droning into another one, 
which is growing on the opposite side of the garden 
walk. As she reaches down into the bottom of 
its chalice, for the sweets she hopes to find there, 
some grains of the pollen she has brought in with 
her will be rubbed off her velvet jacket onto the 
waiting pistil. 
Crocus number two accepts this unintentional 
donation with pleasure, pays for it with a drop of 
nectar, and gives also a sprinkling of pollen from 
her own stamens. The bee, carrying the powdered 
gold which has just been bestowed upon her, flies 
