. Flashlights on nature [microform]. Insects; Plants; Insectes; Plantes. lOO Flashlights on Nature I' compare it, indeed, to a hive of bees, the leaves representing^ the workers, while the five-pedalled flowers are analogous to the queen-bees, and the four-petalled blossoms to the husbands or drones. Nay, more: those of my readers who have begonia plants of their own may observe for themselves another sin- gular resemblance to the habits and manners of honey-bees. For after the drones have done their work in life by fertilising the queen- bee, the prudent workers sting them to death, as being
. Flashlights on nature [microform]. Insects; Plants; Insectes; Plantes. lOO Flashlights on Nature I' compare it, indeed, to a hive of bees, the leaves representing^ the workers, while the five-pedalled flowers are analogous to the queen-bees, and the four-petalled blossoms to the husbands or drones. Nay, more: those of my readers who have begonia plants of their own may observe for themselves another sin- gular resemblance to the habits and manners of honey-bees. For after the drones have done their work in life by fertilising the queen- bee, the prudent workers sting them to death, as being useless mouths, of no further benefit to the community ; but the queen-bee neces- sarily survives to be- come the mother of young swarms, or future generations. If she were killed, it would be all up with the community. Just so with the begonias ; as soon as the male flowers have performed their whole duty in life, by producing and disseminating the grains of pollen which the insects carry away and smear upon the sister blossoms, they break off at the. NO. 4 -MALE BEGONIA FLOWER, FRONT Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Allen, Grant, 1848-1899. New York : Doubleday & McClure
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Photo credit: © Library Book Collection / Alamy / Afripics
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectin, booksubjectplants
