there appears to be some ground for believing that the marked bees do actually give instructions to the others, for in my case the honey was placed in a spot which was quite out of the way of the voyages of the bees, and yet on several occasions friends of the marked bees found it; and though the honey might be left in exactly the same position for a week or more before the experiment was tried, yet not a single bee ever came to it. CHAPTER XL BEE FLOWERS Until quite recent times it was not thought that the bees’ visits to flowers were for any other purpose than to gather food for themselves. It is now known, however, that their visits are really necessary to the flowers, and it is thought that flowers secrete nectar to attract them. Some kinds of flowers contain more nectar than others, and it is not always the largest which have the most. Small flowers are quite as interesting to study, if not more so, than large ones, and there is a great deal yet to be learned about even the tiniest flower. A primrose or a snowdrop possesses wonders which even the greatest scientists of the day cannot completely fathom. Lord Tennyson knew this when he wrote these beautiful lines:-- “Flower in the crannied wall, I pluck you out of the crannies; Hold you here, root and all, in my hand, Little flower; but if I could understand What you are, root and all, and all in all, I should know what God and man is.” [Illustration: PLATE XXXV Delphinium] Nature has so arranged things that all plants do not flower at the same time. Not only does this give us flowers nearly all the year round, but it allows the bees to work many months to gather in the stores for winter. Have you noticed that as soon as one kind of flower is over its place is taken by something else? Even though this arrangement does exist, it would be of but little value to the bees, unless the flowers were “honey” flowers--that is to say, the sort which secrete good supplies of nectar. Yet the bee-keeper knows that besides the ordinary flowers, those kinds which are useful to bees also follow one another from early spring to late autumn. There is thus a sort of calendar of honey flowers all the year round.