Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 5.djvu/148

136 a colored object from an object not colored. We need more observations before we can safely say that insects apprehend the different shades of color, and prefer one shade to another; but, if any one will watch bees on a bed of hyacinths, he will see that a particular bee is apt to confine itself to a particular color.



We conclude that color and nectary are in correlation with the organs of fructification and with the eyes and appetites of insects.

Odor must come under the same law as color. We must seek for its rationale in the flower itself and the forces or agents which act on it. The hidden flowers of violet and polygala are odorless as well as



colorless. The grasses, pines, and palms, whose pollen is borne on the wind, are inconspicuous in color and are generally without odor. But some species of palm require the visitation of insects, and while their flowers remain inconspicuous in color they are rich in perfume. The fan-palm of the Rio Negro perfumes the air far and near with the odor of mignonette. Myriads of insects, attracted by the fragrance, hum and buzz among the flowers, and carry pollen from the staminate to the pistillate ones. This odor is pleasant to man as well as insects.