Word: flowers
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...advocated a more thorough study of American history, the introduction of music and botany. He saw no reason why children's chairs should not have backs, why their dull texts should not be "worthy of the best literary genius," or why their classrooms should not be brightened with "flower pots and pretty shrubs...
...scout bee cannot smell flowers at any great distance; its odor perception is about as sharp as a man's. But when it alights on a flower to which it has been attracted by sight, it is so close to the flower's scent glands that very faint odors are perceptible. Most flowers have "scent spots," which the bee feels out with the organs of smell on its antennae. The scent spots lead the scout to the cups where the nectar lies...
...nectar. A sugar content of 5% does not interest a bee; such nectar would spoil in the hive before it could be concentrated into long-keeping honey. A 20% sugar content is satisfactory, and 40% makes the bee wildly enthusiastic. It sucks up some nectar and marks the flower with its own scent from a gland on its abdomen. Having thus staked a claim, it heads back to the hive to spread the glad news...
...does it tell and what does it tell? By elaborate experiments over many years, Dr. von Frisch deciphered some phases of bee language. A scout bee, he says, can tell its fellows what kind of flower contains the honey-trove, in what direction it lies, and how far away...
When the scout bee enters the hive, he says, it climbs to a section of comb and starts a stylized dance. Other bees gather around, caressing the scout with their touch-and-smell antennae. The scout bee's odor, picked up from the flower it has robbed, tells them what sort of flower they should look...