Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1895-07-25
TIKI, CITIZEN.
Insects and Flowers

No side of natural history is more
curious than the relation between insects
and the Towering of plants. In the
primitive and simpler plants that live in
the sea the male cells are discharged into
the water and row themselves along BY
the screving motion of minute bristles
until they reach and feltiljze the egg
cells of tie female. In many land plants
the male cells, discharged a. clouds OF
golden pollen, are blown about by the
wind; myrisds perish, but few reach
their goal, and fertilizing the young egg
cells, cause them to ripen into seed. In
msny cases, however, Nature has curbed
80 reckless prodigality, and the colors
and scents Of flowers are fruit OF her
parsimony. 1t may be LAID down as a
universal truth to which the exceptions
are only apparent, that plants bearing
brightly colored or peIiumed flowers Ie-
quire the aid of insects to fertilize them.
The colors serve to attract the attention
of insects; The scents, especially in fow-
ers that blossom by night, serve the sam
purpose. The insects come for the store
of honey. or for the pollen of the plants,
and their return gift to the pl 'nts H. that,
fitting from blossom to blossom, they
unconsciously carry the golden fertilizing
grains from plant to plant.
For most Towering plants the visits OF
insects are a necessity. Let one but
grow some common plant, like geranium
or mignonette, under glass and muslin, so
that no stray insect may reach them; the
flowers will. be formed, the perfume will
be as sweet as usual, but the blossom will
fade without forming seeds. Many of our
English flowers are capable of being
fertilized only by one kind of insect.
Thus, to choose q familiar instance, the
common red clover is visited by the hum
BILE bee; the petals are fused together,
forming a narrow tube surrounding the
honey glands and the organs that form
the pollen. The long proboscis OF the
humble bee is able to reach the deeply
hidden stores; but the hive bee, whose
tongue is shorter, though hidden to th9
feast by attractive color and smell, is
perforce an inactive spectator. When
clover was first grown in Australia ih
never seeded, and it was found that the
tongues Of the native bees were too short
to reach the pollen. Still more often the
Of hn
sterile in England in the absence of the
particular moth or fly to which they are
adapted.
Sometimes. as Darwin showed in his
fascinating volume on "The Fertilization
OF the orchids" the devices to secure
that an insect shall not visit 9 flower
without coming in contact with the pollen
are extraordinarily complicated. An in
sect alights on guady and sweet smell
ing blossom. An inviting landing place
is ready in the form of a conveniently
placed floral leaf but the thing 10 trick.
No sooner is the platform touched than il
gives way with jerk, precipitating the
hapless insect into a well OF fluid. His
wings are wett ed, and he has to crawl
out slowly. But pointed bristles prevent
exit except by q narrow funnel, and, IA
he sque ezes through that, his back be-
comes dus ted with the sticky pollen. In
most plants, however, the lures are
simpler, and are adapted to many different
kinds of insects. In spring, when the
fields are bare, the blues and whites ol
the early flowers are sufficient to attract
1.-THE notice of the few insects on the wing.
During Summer, when the world il
covered with green, more glaring contrasts
come into play, and the bold masses OF
orange and gold, of crimson and pink, ap-
pear. 1t is curious, however that scar let,
the most CLAIMANT of colors, Is the rarest
n Europe. In the tropics and in South
America it is one of the most common,
and IT were worth inquiring if European
insects be color blind to scarlet. Al
night, when crimson and blue. pink and
and luminous whites attract The night
flying insect by their phrospo resent
radiance.
The scents Of plants are almost moIt
potent lures than their colors. AZ night
they are naturally more yaned and more
potent. To drift in backwster in Z
summer night or to loiTer in a wood, is to
set one dreaming of the tropic isles. The
scents Of the day are shy and indistinci
only in the mass one notices them, a. in
passing through bean field, or by a
thIcket Of gorse. But at night each bios
som that is not asleep sends out a clam
orous md insistent odor, and at the same
moment one notices a dozen distinct and
striking perfumes. But, by day or by
pleasant to us. Some indeed are not
even within our cOnsci0Csaess. Thus the
flowers ofthe Virginia creepor are almost
Invisible; they have green corollss and arr
nidaen under the foliage. TO us they
nave no scent, yet bees come to then
from great distances, and during thei
season they are always crowded will
visitors Some of the scents most deal
to us are despised by many insects.
Butterflies viii pass honeysuckle itself
or, indeed, any flowers with a honeysucklt
scent, uunoticed. At night. however
large hawk moths, by their attention Il
honeysuckle, show that they share oui
ideas of what is pleasant. Butterflies and
bees, like ourselves are unattracted by
the carrion-like smell of many plants
but these latter are visited by many
beetles aud flies, to which the perfumes OF
the rose and the violet are unattracti We.
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