The Pollination of the Primrose

Abstract

IN NATURE of May 20 the reviewer, in the course of his appreciative and interesting notice of my book, “Life-histories of Familiar Plants,” states:—“We notice that, without stating definitely what insect pollinates the primrose, the author refers to the bee or moth as doing it, in a misleading way. He would have been wiser to ask readers to notice what insect is really effective in the case of this plant. Neither honey-bees nor moths are known to be so.” Regarding this point, on p. 78 I have written as follows:—“Now, watch the occasional bee that makes a visit to these two different types of flowers. Here is one alighting. With the sudden weight thus imposed upon it the flower sways,” &c. This passage, of course, refers to a humble-bee, as the reference to “the sudden weight” clearly implies. It is true that I did not definitely state that it was a humble-bee, but, on the other hand, I have nowhere in the chapter referred to the honey-bee.