340 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol. XLIII 



To determine the influence of the petals of the common 

 pear, Pyrus communis, upon the visits of the honey-bee, 

 Apis mellifera L., a medium-sized tree in full bloom was 

 selected for observation. The day was clear, warm and 

 calm, the bees were numerous and no other insects were 

 present. 



A cluster of seven blossoms near the end of a branch 

 was watched for fifteen minutes and received eight visits 

 of the honeybee. The petals were now all removed and 

 it was observed for a second quarter of an hour. Though 

 a number of bees flew near by, it received not a single 

 visit. During a third fifteen minutes there were two 

 visits, due in part to association, for the bees came from 

 other blossoms on the same tree, which had proved the 

 first source of attraction. 



Two other clusters of flowers, growing side by side but 

 nearer the bole of the tree, consisting each of eight 

 flowers, were observed for fifteen minutes and sixteen 

 separate visits of the honeybee were noted The petals 

 of one of these clusters were now removed. During 

 fifteen minutes the adjacent cluster, which still retained 

 its petals, received eleven visits, while not one was made 

 to the cluster without petals. In one instance a bee 

 hovered over it but did not alight. 



These results were much more conclusive than I had 

 expected ; for, in the second experience, it might have been 

 supposed that the odor exhaled by the evaporating nectar 

 of the denuded blossoms would have attracted the bees, 

 which were only an inch or two distant ; but their move- 

 ments were evidently determined almost entirely by the 

 presence of the petals. 



On a warm pleasant morning in August at 11:30 o'clock, 

 (a.m., I selected for experiment two groups of flowers 

 belonging to Borago officinalis, or the common borage. 

 They were distant apart about six inches ; one contained 

 five flowers ; the other, which was at a little higher eleva- 

 tion, contained four flowers. They were both watched 

 for ten minutes. The first received fifteen visits from 



