the: bee and the eeower 
73 
there are dull yellow or brownish flowers which draw 
their insect visitors by giving off the putrid odor of decay. 
Have you white flowers in your garden, such as the 
slender-stemmed tobacco plant? At night these flowers 
glow in the darkness, and their scent steals upon the 
summer air until the white moths flutter to them. On 
Easter day a friend brought to our house a lily with 
seven blossoms; all day we could not catch a trace of 
odor though we pressed our faces close to the great 
waxy petals, but at night the room was filled with fra¬ 
grance, a fragrance so sweet it followed us upstairs when 
we put out the light at bed-time. 
Many flowers expose their pollen only in the brightest 
sunlight; it is at noon of the sunshiniest days that the 
bees buzz loudest. Because the fine working days are far 
too few, the bees must make the most of their time, so 
they go about their pollen gathering in a very business¬ 
like way. Mr. Bee starts on one kind of flower, say 
a honeysuckle blossom; he learns the quickest and 
shortest way to the nectar, and when he has sucked it 
dry he flies to another blossom on the same vine and 
another and another, each time, perhaps, obtaining his 
prize with more ease and swiftness. The flowers, too, 
help to save time; many of them change color and fade 
as soon as fertilized. It is their way of saying to the bees, 
