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THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol. XLIV 



one case as the other, it would seem that the color was the attracting 

 force." 



It remains to consider the numerous instances where 

 bees visit indiscriminately the differently colored varie- 

 ties of the same species of flower. Zinnia elegans dis- 

 plays white, yellow, orange, red and purple varieties; 

 Dahlia variabilis white, yellow, orange, red and purple; 

 and Centaur ea Cyanus red, white, blue and purple 

 flowers. When visiting any one of these species for nec- 

 tar bees pass freely from flowers of one color to those of 

 another. Plateau says : 



If in the case of the same plant species the varieties of distinct color 

 are in equal quantities, the insects pass without order from one color 

 to another. 18 



One summer in my garden a single plant of the scarlet 

 runner (Phaseolus multiflorus) produced pure white 

 blossoms, which offered a striking contrast to the normal 

 bright scarlet racemes; but honey-bees and bumblebees 

 {Bombus terricola) visited both as though they had been 

 of the same hue. Bees likewise ignore the differences of 

 color in the white, rose-red, and purple flowers of Scabiosa 

 atropurpurea. But this behavior on the part of bees 

 furnishes no evidence whatever that they can not distin- 

 guish colors. 



Honey-bees in collecting pollen and nectar are faithful 

 as a rule to a single species of flower — they exhibit 

 " flower fidelity." This is evidently for their advantage, 

 since if they were to pass continually from flowers of one 

 form to those of another much time would be lost in locat- 

 ing the nectar. Even whole colonies may follow this 

 order. Mr. M. H. Mendleson, of Ventura, California, one 

 of the largest honey-producers on the Pacific coast, re- 

 lates that 



In 1884, one colony out of 200 gathered exclusively from an abun- 

 dance of mustard bloom; the 199 gathered from the sages." 



,T Peckham, George W., and Elizabeth, "Waspa Social and Solitary," 



