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Why The Blue-bell Is Blue

Why The Blue-bell Is Blue image
Parent Issue
Day
16
Month
March
Year
1882
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

A few yeara ago, wben Uie problem oí tbe connection between flowers and insects still retnatned much in the state wlierc Sprungyl left it, at the end of the last centnry. it would have seemed quite imposaible to answerth! question. Büt nowadays, Hfter the f uil researches of Darwiu, Wallace, Lubbock, anti Herman Muller into the subject, we can give a very satisfactwr solution indeed. % now know nol ouly that the colora of ïKnvevs, as a whole, are intended to attract insecto in general, but tliat eertaln coloi'8 m deüuitely irneüJed to Utract certain specuü kinds of insectf . Tl.ua, to tako a few exainpies only out of hundreds that might be eited, t!e üowcrs whieli lay tuemselves out for fmilization oy niiscellaneous small flies are almost always white; thosu wliieh depend apoii tho beetles are generally vellow ; while ttaose which bid for the favor of bees and butteifliea are usnaliy red, purple, lilac, ct blue. Oertain Insecto always visit one species oi' (Low.er alone, and others paas froni blossom to blossom of oiie kniü oniy on a single aay, thougb tliey may avy a little from kind to kiud as the season advan ;ind ohö species replaoes tnotiie;. Muller, tlie most statistieol oí' naturalist, has noticed t.haí, whlle bees from 75 per cent, oí' the insect!, visiting tbe very dcveloped composiu;s, tliey forni OBly 14 per cení., oí mose visiuug uwbilliferous i1.4ntt, wktch üave, as a rule, open bui, by no means showy white llowers. Oeitain bloaspms wliicli lay themselves out to attract waspf-, aro, as he quainty puta it, "obviorjly adapted.to'a less asthetically cuTtvata eircle oí vlsitors." Aiidsom-j ivid red flowers actually resemble la their color and odor deo;iyiug rnv taeat,, thus üucing blue-Liottie tt'es to visit itiem and so curry tlieir pollen trom lieud to Down ta the a:inutfst tlistinctions betweon species tbis correlation of floweis tb the tastea of their particular guesta seems to hóíd good. Ilerman Muller notes that th conamcai galiuia oí our heatbs and liöiiges is white aud, therefore, visited by small flies; while the lady's bedstraw, lts near relaiive, is yellow aiul owes its fejtilUation to littlo Mr. II. O. Forbes counted on one occasion the visits he saw paid to the flowers on a Single bank, and he found that a particular bumble-bce sucked the taone; of thirty purplo dead-netües in Boecession, passing over 'without, auy notice all the otber plants in Uut Ktjighborhood ; two other species of bumblebee and a cabbage-butterfly also patronized the same èead-nettlea cxclnsively. Friti Muller noticed a Jautana in South America whieh changos color as its Üoweriüg advanoys; and lie obseived tbat each kind of buttertly whieh visited it stuck rigidly to ita own favorito color, waiting to pay iU addreases until that color appeare.. Mr. üarwin cut off tho petals of a lobelia. and found that the liive-bees never went near it, thoagh tbey were very busy with the gurrounding llow ers. But perhaps Sir John Lubbbck1 latost experimonts on hees are the moat conclusive of all. He had lon aga convinced hirpself, by trials of honey placed ou slips of glasa above yellow, pink, or blue paper that bees toxúá. discrinunate tíe different colors, ;un.i he has now shown in the same waj tliat they display a maiked pi-eferrnci' for blue over all othera, The tact is blue flowers are, as a rule, gpeeláliseá for fertilizattoa by bees, and bees, therefore, prefer this oolor : wliile tonver3ely t!i flowers have at tho sanie time beoouae blue beeause that waa the color Whloh the !'oes prefer. As in most olher cases, the adaptation must havegone on pari passu on both sidea. As the bec-ilowers grew bluer, the bees Qtust have growij íonder ;ur. fonder of blue, and as they grew tüaáer of blue they must luwe moro and! more constantly prefefred the btuesti ílowers.- Cornhill Magazine. Mr. Bancroft, at Wathtegton. lina the devota! f ria(is!::i' Of thn yoiuif;, lio Ib fqtvá oí Baring youthful tüeei" about iiim, and at bis din'Mr partiea always has some of Ivl yoinig favoritos

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Subjects
Old News
Ann Arbor Democrat