the be;e; and the fbowe;r 
7 1 
over a buttercup, preparing to rifle the nectary at the 
base of each golden petal, the pollen catches on his feet 
and he wipes it off upon the pistil of the next flower, just 
as your little brother, when he forgets himself, wipes 
the mud from his boots onto the parlor rug! 
Pollen is the only food for bees, wasps, flies, beetles, 
moths and butterflies, so you can see what a happy ar¬ 
rangement Nature has made; the insects are fed, the 
flowers are cross-pollinated. 
Eagerly the flowers await their insect visitors. See 
how dainty Miss Poppy puts on her very prettiest dress 
to attract her butterfly friend! How sweet the fragrance 
of the rose as, laying back her glowing petals she offers 
her pollen to the bumble bee! Brilliant color draws the 
insects; that is why the corolla flames scarlet, blue or 
yellow. Naturalists have differed as to which has the 
stronger attraction, bright color of the corolla or sweet 
scent of the nectar. Darwin thought it was the color, 
so to make sure he stripped the bright petals from his 
flowers, and no insects approached them. But Plateau, 
a Belgian naturalist, was not satisfied with this proof. 
He said to himself, 
“Mr. Darwin was careless when he took the petals 
from his flowers, he handled them roughly and injured 
them,—that is why the bees would not come. Now I 
will strip the petals very, very tenderly from my brightest, 
