HOW NATURE CREATED THE ElRST PR ANTS 79 
clematis. If it remained a dark, thick green calyx, fit 
only for protecting the bud, the bees would not fly to it. 
And not only does the flower put on her fine dress and 
sweet perfume to attract the insects, she also does what 
she can to make things comfortable for these visitors 
when they alight. She stiffens her petals to make strong 
landing-stages for the bees; in the lady’s slipper you can 
see how the petal has thickened just where the insect has 
to stand, so also in the orchid, the purple sage, and the 
golden broom. A flower like the hedge-parsley holds its 
nectar in a shallow cup, so that flies and such short- 
tongued insects can easily reach it, and flies wander 
about over the blossoms scattering pollen freely. “But 
in a flower like the sage,” we are told by our old friend 
Mr. Arthur Thomson, “the nectar is hidden at the bot¬ 
tom of the deep corolla tube; it can be reached only by 
long-tongued bees,” and Mr. Bee must enter the flower 
in one particular way. The lower petal forms a landing- 
stage to which Mr. Bee clings; he thrusts his head and 
little chest into the corolla tube. As he pushes against 
the lower ends of the two stamens, the upper ends swing 
down and dust his back with pollen. He buzzes off to 
another sage flower, a somewhat older one this time, 
whose pistil raises its head from the upper petal just far 
enough to get in Mr. Bee’s way and catch the pollen from 
off his back. Such a flower as the sage has all its parts 
