Sunday Washington globe., 1902-06-01
Why PLANTS ARE PRETTY.
THE AGENCY or INSECTS IN MAX.
ING FLOWERS BEAUTIFUL.

| Nowhere Else in the Realm Of Life
Can We So at a Glance Perceive
the lnteraetion Between All Liv
ing Beings.
The following is an extract from an
article by Prof. N. s. Shaler of Har
ward University in Harper's Maga
zine. entitled The Relations Of Ami
mails and Plants"
II we watch a honey-beo, or better
a humblebee, in his everyday round
We may note that he discerns the
sought-for flower afar off. His actions
indicate this from a hundred feet or
more away. He knows the kind he
seeks by it's gray corolla, which serves
him as well as a tavern sign that
looks up and down the travelled way
serves other wayfarers.
When the bee comes to the place of
business he finds convenient footing
provided by the petals. so that he can
easily plunge the fore part of his body
into the center OF the cup.
Then he has an immediate reward
in a sip of nectar, and. it may be, fur
ther pay in the store OF pollen that
can be gathered balled upon his
thighs and taken to the hive.
As he tumbles about in the flower
the bee soon becomes covered with
pollen, which adheres to the short
hairs on his body, with the result that
some of it is conveyed to the next
blossom that is visited, and serves to
bring about the prontable cross-rer.
tilization.
AS the bees in their round are in
the habit of spreading the work of
any one day on the same kind of
plants-though in the course Of the
season they resort to a variety of
species-the pollen they carry about,
though still much Of it Is wasted, is
vastly more effective than If it were
trusted to the chance of the wind
What We observe in the actions Of
bees as they visit ID simple flower.
such as a rose is only the beginning
Of a series of relations between plants
and insects which, wnn other species
Va AAAoENA1 anu UAAAE4 Au4 pcs VI UADe-
somes, is often wonderfully elaborat
ed; most noticeably so in those plants
which are contrived with reference to
the visits Of particular species of
moths or butterflies.
Here we often find very curious ar
rangements of the corolla, so that the
insect. in seeking the nectar when
allures it. is sure to have some of the
pollen fastened upon its body in a po-
sition where the dust win be brushed
upon the pistil of the next flower of
the species which Is visited.
The contrivances of the plant are
matched by those Of the insects in a
way which indicates singular col
laboration between them which has
served to give to each group in large
part their shape, and to the insects
much Of their intelligence.
1t Is evident that flowers have be-
come beautiful by endeavors made
during ages since the coal period to
attract the visits Of bees, butterhIes
and moths, and that these creatures
have shaped their bodies, their modes
of life and their instincts upon their
profitable relations with the flowers.
Nowhere else in the realm OF life
can we so at a glance perceive how
profound is the interaction between
all living beings, however diverse they
may be. when the needs Of life bring
them in contact, as in these ex-
changes Of insects and plants.
The groups are in two very widely
parted realms, yet out Of their neces-
sitie1 there has come an intercourse
which has led to a vast enhancement
in the quality Of each of them; the
lower life has won beauty from the
relations, and the higher intelligence.
To this interaction IS mainly que
development Of the vast array Of IN !
insect species, perhaps two million in !
number, and in hardly less measure |
the variety among plants.