REVIEWS. 
179 
a few visits to honey on paper of a particular colour, I found that if the 
papers were transposed the bees followed the colour.” 
Full of interest as these facts are, they are followed by others not less 
surprising-. Take the case of the female humble-bee recorded by H. Muller. 
He says : 11 She made several vain attempts to suck the honey (from an 
Aquilegia) ; but after a while, having apparently satisfied herself that she 
was unable to do so, bit a hole through the corolla. Having thus secured 
the honey, she visited several other flowers, biting holes through them, with- 
out making any attempt to suck them first, conscious apparently that she 
was unable to do so.” And this was not only a single instance, for Herr 
Muller has recorded several similar cases. Especially interesting are the 
author’s observations on the object of peculiar bands of colour on certain 
flowers. Sprengel, eighty years ago, referred in his splendid work, “ Das 
entdeckte Geheimniss der Natur,” to this subject, and intimated that in all 
probability those lines had reference to the position of the honey. And this 
lias been borne out by Sir J. Lubbock’s inquiries, for he found that bees 
regularly depend on these lines as guides to the position of honey. For he 
observes, “ I did not realise the importance of these guiding marks until, 
by experiments on bees, I saw how much time they lose, if honey which is : 
put out for them is moved even slightly from its usual place.” It would 
be impossible to follow the author through all the natural orders, which he . 
deals with as fully as there are materials in each group. But we may quote 
a few observations which appear to us of considerable importance. And 
firstly of the process of fertilization in the Berberis, which is so well known 
because of the singular manner in which its stamens move when they are 
touched. We assume that our readers are acquainted with the flowers of 
this by no means rare plant, in which the cross-fertilization is brought about 
by a curious contrivance. “ The bases of the stamens are highly irritable, 
and when an insect touches them the stamens spring forward and strike the 
insect. The effect of this is not only to shed the pollen over the insect, but 
also in some cases to startle it and drive it away, so that it carries the pollen 
thus acquired to another flower.” The question of whether it is natural for 
plants to be impregnated with their own pollen has been gone into with 
much minuteness by Mr. Darwin, and he has arrived at the conclusion, as we 
have already stated, that it is not the proper process. Sir J. Lubbock says 
that, by a series of careful and elaborate experiments, Mr. Darwin has shown 
that the well-known flax plant ( Linuin ) “ is almost entirely sterile, with 
pollen of its own form. He repeatedly placed pollen of long-styled flowers 
on the stigmas of the same kind, and pollen of short-styled flowers on 
stigmas of short-styled flowers, but without effect; while if pollen of a 
long-styled flower is placed on a short-styled stigma, or vice ve?'sd, abundance 
of seed is produced.” Mr. Darwin has proved the same thing in the case of 
Ly thrum salicaria , in which plant he finds that there are three description® 
of flowers which he calls the long-styled, mid- styled, and the short-styled ; and 
not only do the styles differ, but the seeds, the size of the pollen-grains, and! 
the colour of the filaments of the stamens. In this plant Sir J. Lubbock 
says Mr. Darwin has also proved by experiment “ that this species does not 
set its seeds if the visits of insects are prevented ; in a state of nature, how- 
ever, the plant is much frequented by bees, humble-bees, and flies, which 
always alight on the upper side of the flowers, on the stamens and pistil. Mr. 
n 2 
