28 The Honey- Makers 



tubular flowers, and to be requested to take nourishment 

 from a flat-topped flower with no tubes, but holding nectar 

 galore free to the common herd of short-tongued bees, flies, 

 and other plebeian insects, was too much for her philosophy. 



She could not credit it, and the little brown tongue was 

 repeatedly thrust between the petals of this flower into the 

 outer air, where it vainly waved and wriggled. 



She evidently scented the honey, was hunger-distracted, 

 and made frantic efforts to get it — by licking the air ! 



She persisted in trying to find tubular nectaries in mid- 

 air for so long a time that her captor seriously meditated 

 coming to her assistance, when finally her wayward tongue 

 in its gyrations accidentally slid over the actual nectary. 



The problem was at once solved. She licked the 

 cushion-like nectary dry, went to another flower, and started 

 aright. 



In fact, she licked out every flower in the bunch without 

 making another mistake, proving that though she acquired 

 a new idea with difficulty, she kept it when she got it. 



Honey-bees presented with different forms of papiliona- 

 ceous flowers always had to find out by experiment where 

 to find the opening to the nectary and how to get to it. 

 Though when they had finally succeeded with one flower, 

 they profited by their experience and quickly and dexter- 

 ously rifled all of like form within reach. 



Perhaps the most amusing of all were the bumble-bees 

 trying to extract honey from the Iris. 



This flower is so formed that the bee cannot get the 

 nectar without creeping under the petal-like style {X), that 

 lies curved against the true petal ( Y) and acts as a spring 

 when an insect pushes under it. Beneath this spring at A 

 lies the anther ; and the flower's intention evidently is to 

 make the bee pay for its feast of nectar by dusting its back 

 with pollen as it crowds under the style, and carrying the 



