The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1895-11-28

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| and expose essential organs. Again,
| many flowers, especially those best fitted
| to survive, have starens and pistils sc
| placed as TO hinder or quito prevent pol
lenization except by foreign aid. Violets
depend wholly upon their guests, holding
their little ball-liks stiemas quite above
their own anthers. Our mariposa OF
butterfly lilies are at first purely altruis.
tic, furnishing pollen for older flowars
and not exposing their stigmas until their
own pollen is quite gone. Cultivated
geraniums drop their anthers before curl
ing back their stigmas, but the provident
buttercup exposes its own stigmas first,
and afterward provides pollen for other
flowers.
In the transfarence Of their pollen flow
ers are able to CLEAN service from all
along the scale of animal life. from
snails to birds ana lorticulturists, but
they have their own standard as to what
constitutes Instability in agents and
guests. Indigenous plants must depend
mainly on creatures with wings. such as
insects that feed on neutar and POLLEN.
Now beetles are slow and bocrish, ana
som shines eat the flower tissue instead
of the food the host provides. Flies work
often fail to rsco,npense their host.
Moths and butterflies are mighty adapted
TO the uses of the flower, but they require
little food and srs exasperatingly hippant
and self-conscious. Bees have not mere
ly to appeass their own hunger; they
must accum ulate, and they are as devot-
cd to business as self-made American.
| once carried a branch OF wild lilac over
M shoulder for mile, and found the
bees still working on it whom l laid it
down. They work, too, in methodicsl
way and very rapidly. live bee pays
fourteen visits per minute to our dainty,
satin tringed ground pink. In Bear valley
/, 10 NM, I
gather pollen from lupines and pack 1t
away IN his baskets at the rate OF thirty
five flowers per minute. HuWming birds
are very important factor in the pollen
ization OF flowers IN our sunny climate.
They work even more rapidly than bees
easily getting nectar from sixty-five sage
flowers IN minute. Small wonder that
they have so much leisure for their dain.
ty posing and antics! Naturally flowers
can afford to bid for the attentions OF
bess and humming birds by excluding
other guests.
The entertainment provided by the
flowers consists usually of pollen or nee
tar-aEd manifold are the ways OF serving
retreshm ents. Our plebeian. round OPEN
faced buttercup provides goodly supply
OF nectar, served priinly, one little drop
ut the base of each petal, protected by
this simplest sort of a cover. 1t adver-
tses its stores by turning its vanished
petals toward the sun during business
hours-from s to Am effective as well
as an honest device. for one can catch
from some distance the CLINT of the littl1
nectar drop. The mxriposas practice
more elegant hospitality. Near the base
of each petal is a minute bowl OF nectar,
protected by fringes and embellished by
borders of the most brilliantly contrast
ing hues, crimson on cream or lavender
petals, golden brown in yellow lilies,
and royal pnrpla the Name.rOl pred
mariposa of the desert. Marirosas. too,
as they close toward evening, offer shell
ter of which homeless bachelor bees very
frequently and contentediy avail them.
selves. 1t is by a!tording night lodgings
that the callas, in our climate at least,
secure polarization. their stigmas being
withered before their own pollen is ma
ture. The hospitality Of the flowers is
not discriminating they entertain many
guests from whom they derive no benefit !;
but flowers more specialize. in structure
keep their nectar in recsptacles accessible
only to the long tonaues of more prohta-
BILE patrons. in spurs for instance as in
vioets. nasturtiums, pelargoniums,
larkspurs, and colum bines, or in tubes
resulting from the union of petals, which
Is constant characteristic of all the
highest group of Towering plants.
One of the most fascinating theories
connected with our subject Is that of
progressive coloration, the bslisf that
the primitive color OF flowers is yellow
and this b.st snits the general riff:raff OF
the insect world, while red and blue ap.
real to more highly specialized guests,
blue bling the bee's fnvorite color 10
illustrate this theory take the larkspur.
In our grandmother's gardens the lark
spurs were white. pink and variegatsd
as we'll as blue. But our native lark
spurs have not been propagated artificial
" fhpy have attained form
specially adapted to bees OF hum ming
birds, their color has become fixed, blue
or red. Certain it is that our Southern
California blue IsrkspLrS are pollenized
by large bees and the scarlet ones by
humming birds. One could multiply in
definitely illustrations of this theory from
California flowers. The yellow daisy-lik e
flowers that literally carpet our hillsides
in the spring are thronged with small
beetles and flies. In the Santiago can
yon at the climax of the Towering season
OF one of these plants, so numerous arc
the small flies frequentng the flowers
that horses are made nearly frantic by
them. Many of our most cum on bee
nlants, ths sage, for instance, are blue,
but more striking is the relation between
the scarlet flowers and the humming
birds. Near the hotel in Bear valley
this summer was n hillside glowing
with scarlet pentstemons and it was such
q rendezvous for cumming birds as
have never seen elsewhere. A character
istc sound. even of early dawn or late
twilight, used to be the whir of the
wings of these intensely active little crea-
lures paying visits to their chosen flow
ers. l think there is no doubr that we
owe mainly to these tropical sprites the
whole procession OF scarlet mountain and
canyon flowers. from the fuchsia Ii Ike
ribss of early winter through painted cup
pentstemo Indian pnks. larkspurs
and colu bine to our autumn Zduchneria
or wild fuuhsia.
OF no less interest IS study OF the
form of flowers, their fragrance, their
masSing in clusters, movements, mechan-
less explainable along this Inns. In fact,
once initiated into the open secret OF
the flower the interest becomes ever
widening. Nor does this LOOKING at the
flower from the flowers standp,i lint COZ
stitute what burrows calls "a peepIng
ana prying into nature that blinds us to
the festive splendor of the WHOLE"
Indeed, one who forms growing ac-
quaintance with living flowers in their
natural surroundings is not likely tc
feel that any set of scientific theories
he will LOOK moro to the poet than tt
the potanist. Are You not thinking Of
how Tennyson paints it2
Flower on the crannied wall,
| pluck you out of the crannies-,
Hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
Little flower; but if could understa nd
What you are; root and all, and all in all,
| should know what God and man is
ALICE L. MERIT,
$50 s. Hill street. city.