No. 510] COLOR SENSE OF THE HONEY-BEE 



339 



ments, but also for insisting that the whole subject of the 

 relations of insects to the colors of flowers should be re- 

 examined and tested experimentally. With the exception 

 of the criticisms of Bonnier, in 1879, Miiller's doctrine 

 had remained unquestioned, for no other theory of the 

 significance of brilliant floral leaves is so satisfactory as 

 that they serve as signals or flags to attract the attention 

 of anthophilous visitors. It is well to recall that the 

 great authority, which has been attached to the name of 

 Miiller, rests on innumerable observations and collections, 

 which were continued up to the morning of his sudden 

 death from a pulmonary complaint while studying the 

 flowers of the Tyrol. He is still justly regarded as the 

 foremost of florcecologists. Says his biographer Ludwig : 



" He is not dead, he lives and will live so long as a flower enraptures 

 the eye of an investigator. His bright spirit will live on and, we hope, 

 like that of his teacher and friend Darwin long be a light on the wav 

 to truth in the heart of nature." 2 



Plateau's first paper dealt chiefly with the concealment 

 of the flowers of the dahlia with green leaves; and his 

 second, which appeared in the following year, with the 

 removal of petals. In the last-named communication he 

 describes how he removed the larger part of the corolla 

 of Diqitalis purpurea, Lobelia erinus, CEnothera biennis, 

 Ipomeea purpurea, Delphinium ajacis, and Antirrhinum 

 ma jus; and with the exception of A. majus found that the 

 inconspicuous stumps were visited by insects almost as 

 frequently as the unmutilated flowers. 3 He, therefore, 

 concluded that neither the color nor the form was im- 

 portant, and that insects were attracted by the fragranoe 

 alone. I shall again refer to these experiments after 

 relating my own, which gave very decisive results dia- 

 metrically opposed to those of Plateau. 



'Ludwig, F. Das Leben und Wirken Professor Dr. Hermann Muller's. 

 Botanisches Centralblatt, 17, 404, 1884. 



m,,.. /,Y,/r, ,/, ,, ?,2. -114 34. 1 S9fi. I have not been able to obtain this paper, 

 with sufficient detail, in Knuth's Handbook of Flower Pollination^ and it 



