38 



The Honey-Makers 



From learning of bees and flowers through much reading, 

 one is apt to draw the lines too closely about the methods 

 of nature. One thinks of flowers and bees as adapted by 

 nature to each other, and as fitting together like the two 

 parts of a machine. 



While it is true that flowers no doubt are modified to 

 suit certain insects and to attract them from afar, and the 

 insects are modified to gather sweets from the flowers, still 

 there are very few flowers that allow of but one insect 

 visitor, and very few insects that visit but one species of 

 flower. And any one who has watched a bee experiment 

 with a flower new to it will be filled with a saving sense of the 

 volition of insects, and of the manifold possibilities of action 

 in the insect world. 



There is variety enough in the life of a single bee to 

 afford entertainment to the most exacting, and to show 

 the futility of drawing rigid conclusions concerning the 

 habits and senses of bees without an almost infinite amount 

 of knowledge concerning the habits of all the bees in all 

 parts of the world. 



Bees certainly possess individuality, and to foretell the 

 actions of any one from what is known of the habits of 

 its race would be as sensible as to predict the actions of 

 your neighbor from what you believe yourself to know 

 of the habits of the getius homo. 



