The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1902-08-02
WHY PLANTS ARE PRETTY.
THE AGENCY OF INSECTS IN MAX
ING FLOWERS BEAUTIFUL.
Nowhere Else in the Realm Of Life
Can We So at Glance Perceive
the Interaction Between All Liv-
ina Beings.


ing Beings.
The following is an extract from an
article by Prof. N. 8. Shaler, of Har-
ward University. in Harper's Maga-
zine, entitled 'The Relations Of Ami
mails and Plants"
If We watch a honey-bee, or, better,
humblebee, in his everyday round,
we may note that he discerns the
sought-for flower afar off. His actions
indicate this from hundred feet or
more away. He knows the kind he
seeks by its gray corolla, which serves
him as we'll as 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, 50 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 MS
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-
tilizatior.
AS the bees in their round are in
the habit of spreading the work of
any onA day on the same kind OF
plants--though in the course of the
season shey resort to variety of
species--the pollen they carry about,
though 7till much of it is wasted, is
vastly 'aore effective than if it were
trusted 20 the chance of the wind:
What we observe in the actions OF
bees as they visit simple flower,
such as a rose, is only the beginning
of a series of relations between plants
and insects which, wnn other species
of Insects and other shapes of bios
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 which
allures it, is sure to have some OF the
pollen fastened upon It's body in po-
sition where the dust will 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 a 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.
It is evident that flowers have be-
come beautiful by endeavors made
during ages since the coal period to
attract the visits of bees, butterflies
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 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
stiles there has come an intercourse
which has led 10 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 / hardly less measure
the variety among plants.