The study of flowers, or Botany, is most interesting, especially when considered in relation to insects. It was not till comparatively recent years that it was found they were connected; but one day a young German botanist, called Sprengel, happened to notice some tiny hairs growing in the centre of a wood-geranium. He determined to find out what purpose these hairs served, and ultimately proved that they protected the nectar of the little flower from the rain. From this apparently trivial discovery it was found that most plants were fertilised by insects. It seems almost as though Nature had intended flowers and insects to fit in with each other, and it is very wonderful to think of this when we remember that they belong to two different kingdoms. A great deal has yet to be learned about bees and flowers, for there are all sorts of curious devices in flowers which we do not yet understand. It is important to remember that the bees do not know that they are fertilising the flowers, for they only think of collecting nectar, and carry the pollen from one plant to another quite accidentally. Always remember that a bee will not sting you unless it is annoyed, or unless you hurt it. If it does sting you for this reason, do not kill it, for it is only doing what it has a right to do, although it may be a painful right! I knew some boys who used to spend Saturday afternoons seeing who could kill the most bees. One day they ran to me and told me that they had actually killed 172 bees between them. Of course I told them how cruel I thought they were, but they had never thought of it in this way, and after I had shown them one of my hives and explained a few of the wonders of the bee-city, they said how sorry they were, and you may be sure they have never killed a bee since. THE END Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO. Edinburgh & London TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES: Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized. Although Plate IV is referenced in the text, no Plate IV appears in the original.