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HOW TO KEEP BEES
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This partnership has naturally modified the insects less than the flowers, as the latter were obliged to develop innumerable devices for winning attention from their messengers; naturally also the insects have been more largely modified in their mouth-parts and appliances for carrying pollen, than in other directions. Their habits have also been modified in a measure, and the bee has in some mysterious way been persuaded to work on one kind of blossom at a time. The poetic reproach that the bee is a heartless rover, rifling the lily of sweets only to desert her for the rose, is as unjust as it is untrue. Repeatedly have we watched a bee at work in a bed of pinks. Though clover and other blossoms were near by, she passed methodically from pink to pink, and naught tempted her to fickleness. That the bees use pollen for bread, is a part of the bargain; for the flowers grow it in plenty for both themselves and their partners.

Each species of "honey-plant" has developed its own special device for securing the services of bees to carry its pollen; and no study is more interesting than the unravelling of these flower secrets. Even the novice may do this by asking the flower these three questions: "Where is your nectar?" "Where is your pollen?" "What is the path the bees must follow to get to the nectar?" For ready and accurate answers to such questions, the flowers are not to be surpassed; and if there is any doubtful point, the bees are ready to help elucidate it. There are so many flowers that have become the special part-