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THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol. XLVI 



does not prove that cceteris paribus color contrast is not 

 an advantage. No assertion is made that bees have an 

 antipathy to green, only that flowers of this hue are not 

 as readily seen amidst the foliage. Very likely a green 

 flower opposed to red or yellow leaves would attract the 

 attention of insects as readily as the reverse contrast. 

 Following the example of Plateau, I have included the 

 species of Tilia among greenish flowers, but it is doubtful 

 whether the inflorescence of the American basswood 

 should be considered as inconspicuous. The flowers are 

 of medium size, sweet scented, produced in vast quanti- 

 ties, and are described by a disinterested observer as 

 "yellow and rather pretty." The nectar is so copious 

 that a single hive of bees has obtained 66 pounds in three 

 days, and its odor is so strongly aromatic that it can be 

 perceived throughout an entire apiary. 10 It may, how- 

 ever, serve as an example of an exceptional species. The 

 importance of scent as an attractive factor was, of course, 

 recognized by Miiller, but green flowers are usually odor- 

 less, as pointed out by both Hooker and Henslow. 11 



As additional evidence that insects will visit green 

 flowers Plateau describes how he placed honey on seven- 

 teen anemophilous flowers, as grasses, sedges, rushes and 

 on species of Rumex and Chenopodium, and observed 

 visits of honey-bees, flies and a few other insects. 12 He 

 also fashioned crude imitations of flowers from the liv- 

 ing leaves of the red currant (Ribes rubrum) and the 

 sycamore {Acer Pseudo-Plant anus), in which he put 



* Root, A. I., "The A B C of Bee Culture," p. 397, 1903. A single 

 colony of bees belonging to the late Dr. Gallup, of Orleans, Iowa, once 

 gathered 600 pounds of basswood honey in thirty days. Doolittle, G. M., 



11 A nectariferous flower may be both green and scentless and yet be 

 found by bees. According to Fritz Miiller the flowers of a species of 

 Trianosperrna in South Brazil are visited very abundantly all day long by 

 Apis mellifica and species of Melipona, although they are scentless, greenish, 

 quite inconspicuous, and to a great extent hidden by the leaves. "The 

 Fertilization of Flowers," p. 270. 



"Plateau, F, "Comment les fleurs attirent les insectes," Bull. Acad, 

 roy. Belgique, 4me partie, 3me serie, 34, 602-612 1897 



