BARBERRY MANNERS 225 



medium, and the genista flowers consider the 

 most expressive form of welcome. But the little 

 bees seem to enjoy it, and go again and again to 

 each successive flower, well knowing what the re- 

 sult will be, and apparently " touching off the 

 trigger" without a tremor, or even holding their 

 breath. But they and their foreparents for thou- 

 sands of years have got accustomed to it, and I 

 half imagine that the baby bee, even in his first 

 visit to one of these blossoms, knows precisely 

 what will happen. Pop ! pop ! go the explod- 

 ing flowers, one after the other, at each touch of 

 the bee, throwing up a cloud of yellow pollen 

 which covers the bodies of the insects until they 

 are as dusty as little millers. 



There is an endless variety in these various 

 welcomes among the flowers, and our barberry 

 has one of the queerest of them all. Poets of all 

 ages have loved to dwell upon the flowers — their 

 " swete smels," exquisite forms, fragrance, and 

 colors. The droning bees in an environment of 

 fragrant bloom have moved many a poetic pen to 

 inspiration. But it is not often that the bards 

 have seen deep enough into the floral mysteries 

 to immortalize the doijigs of the blossoms. 



I recall one such allusion, however, with ref- 

 erence to this mischievous blossom of the bar- 

 berry. How well old Hosea Biglow knew its 

 pranks ! 



