SELECTIVE ACTION OF BEES ON FLOWERS. 427 



without seeing any on this flower. Then I saw a few isolated 

 examples, and this year, on two occasions, I have seen the flower 

 abundantly visited. I believe Darwin has somewhere noted the 

 same extreme capriciousness of the bee with regard to Lobelia. 



As to the hairbell, I can distinctly remember once seeing a 

 bee visiting the flower; but I fancy Miiller has a fair list of 

 species for it. And I can quote poetical authority for the fact 

 that it is visited, for Keats writes of — 



"A bee bustling 

 Down in the blue-bells." * 



I have paid special attention to the hairbells of late, but have 

 been very unsuccessful in finding bees in its flowers, although I 

 have observed plenty of small black flies. 



And I have seen bees visiting flowers which had lost their 

 petals, and had only a green calyx surrounding their essential 

 organs. On one occasion, while watching a patch of Geranium 

 Phceum, I counted seventeen visits to flowers without petals in 

 the course of a short period. And I find that Darwin has noticed 

 the same fact with regard to this flower. I have also seen 

 petal-less flowers of Helianihemum vulgare, Geranium pratense, 

 Rubus fruticosus, and garden sage visited by bees. 



Do such facts indicate that bees would select from a race of 

 green flowers those which showed a slight tendency to other 

 colours ? And it may be further asked, could any race of insects 

 afford— apart altogether from the question of taste — to restrict 

 themselves to the few flowers varying in a given direction ? At 

 first there would be — according to the theory — only a few flowers 

 differently tinted among the original green, and these could not 

 supply sufficient honey of themselves for the bees, and those not 

 so varying would have to be visited also, and so receive similar 

 advantages. 



Summing up these few observations, the result is emphati- 

 cally against the popular theory of the bee's selective action on 

 flowers. 



* We doubt whether Keats intended to apply this name to the hairbell. 

 It is commonly bestowed on Scilla nutans, from the bell shape and bright 

 blue colour of the flower; and in Scotland is applied to Campanula rotundi- 

 folia. At any rate, Keats' poetical allusion here is of no scientific 

 value. — Ed. 



