[124]

Melilotus officinalis

July 2d ─ to 4th circumnutation & sleep of leaf

(31 745

Ch XI

flowers perforated; but I found three plants in a separate part of the garden which had sprung up accidentally, & there had not a single flower perforated. General Strachey formerly saw many perforated flowers in this state a garden in the Himalaya and he wrote to the owner to inquire whether these plants grew this relation between the plants growing crowded & their perforation by the bees, these held good, & was answered in the affirmative. Hence it if flowers that the red clover (Trifolium pratense) and the common bean when cultivated in great masses in fields, ─ that Erica tetralix when growing in large numbers on heaths ─ beds of the scarlet runner Kidney-bean in the garden-kitchen, ─ and masses of the same any one species in the garden-flower, ─ are all eminently liable to be perforated.

The explanation if this fact is not difficult. Flowers growing in large masses are numbers afford a rich booty to the bees, & are conspicuous from a distance. They are consequently visited by crows of bees these insects; and I once counted between 20 & 30 bees flying about the same a bed of Pentstemon. They bees are thus stimulated to work quickly by rivalry, and what is much more important they find a large proportion of the flowers, as suggested by

[Cross and self fertilisation, pp. 433-4: "Again, in my own garden every plant in several rows of the common bean had many flowers perforated; but I found three plants in separate parts of the garden which had sprung up accidentally, and these had not a single flower perforated. General Strachey formerly saw many perforated flowers in a garden in the Himalaya, and he wrote to the owner to inquire whether this relation between the plants growing crowded and their perforation by the bees there held good, and was answered in the affirmative. Hence it follows that the red clover (Trifolium pratense) and the common bean when cultivated in great masses in fields,—that Erica tetralix growing in large numbers on heaths,—rows of the scarlet kidney-bean in the kitchen-garden,—and masses of any species in the flower-garden,—are all eminently liable to be perforated.
The explanation of this fact is not difficult. Flowers growing in large numbers afford a rich booty to the bees, and are conspicuous from a distance. They are consequently visited by crowds of these insects, and I once counted between twenty and thirty bees flying about a bed of Pentstemon. They are thus stimulated to work quickly by rivalry, and, what is much more important, they find a large proportion of the flowers, as suggested by my son,* with their nectaries sucked dry."]