Dialogue on Blue. Apis mellifera, Honeybee, and Spanner Geometer Moth, on Cape Bugloss, Anchusa capensis, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
'Well, excuthse me, pleathse, for thshlurring. But you thsee my probothsciths'sh full of nectar. Anyway, thiths'sh not for you yet. I'm not making a moral point but juthst one of fact. Onthce you've turned from a Thspanner Caterpillar into a fine Geometer Moth, your stongue will be thsuited for thisth thsweet thstuff. Meanwhile you'll have to make do with your diet of leavesth.'
'Yes, Ma'am Honeybee, I understand and I know my own crawling body. And once I metamorphise into fluttering I'll be enjoying what I can't possibly like now. I'm still eating only greens, here those of Cape Bugloss, rather rough to my taste - as the Ancients already said - but beggars can't be choosers.'
Thus a short exchange Olymp overheard as he was watching this little scene.
This wonderful blue flower hails from the Cape of South Africa; it was first mentioned for Europeans by Carl Peter Thunberg (1743-1828), a familiar of these pages. It was described more fully in Curtis's Botanical Magazine in 1815-1816.
Dialogue on Blue. Apis mellifera, Honeybee, and Spanner Geometer Moth, on Cape Bugloss, Anchusa capensis, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
'Well, excuthse me, pleathse, for thshlurring. But you thsee my probothsciths'sh full of nectar. Anyway, thiths'sh not for you yet. I'm not making a moral point but juthst one of fact. Onthce you've turned from a Thspanner Caterpillar into a fine Geometer Moth, your stongue will be thsuited for thisth thsweet thstuff. Meanwhile you'll have to make do with your diet of leavesth.'
'Yes, Ma'am Honeybee, I understand and I know my own crawling body. And once I metamorphise into fluttering I'll be enjoying what I can't possibly like now. I'm still eating only greens, here those of Cape Bugloss, rather rough to my taste - as the Ancients already said - but beggars can't be choosers.'
Thus a short exchange Olymp overheard as he was watching this little scene.
This wonderful blue flower hails from the Cape of South Africa; it was first mentioned for Europeans by Carl Peter Thunberg (1743-1828), a familiar of these pages. It was described more fully in Curtis's Botanical Magazine in 1815-1816.