Then when she comes back again she may perhaps go to another kind
of flower, such as the sweet peas, for instance, and keep to them
during the next journey, but it is more likely that she will be
true to her old friend the mignonette for the whole day.
We all know why she makes so many journeys between the garden and
the hive, and that she is collecting drops of honey from each
flower, and carrying it to be stored up in the honeycomb for
winter's food. How she stores it, and how she also gathers
pollen-dust for her bee-bread, we saw in the last lecture; to-day
we will follow her in her work among the flowers, and see, while
they are so useful to her, what she is doing for them in return.
We have already learnt from the life of a primrose that plants
can make better and stronger seeds when they can get pollen-dust
from another plant, than when they are obliged to use that which
grows in the same flower; but I am sure you will be very much
surprised to hear that the more we study flowers the more we find
that their colours, their scent, and their curious shapes are all
so many baits and traps set by nature to entice insects to come
to the flowers, and carry this pollen-dust from one to the other.
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