Eye Spy: Afield with Nature Among Flowers and Animate ThingsGibson, W. Hamilton (William Hamilton)
History
Eye Spy: Afield with Nature Among Flowers and Animate Things
Gibson, W. Hamilton (William Hamilton)
Insects; Natural history; Natural history -- Outdoor books
In order to make it clear I have drawn a progressive series of
pictures which hardly require description. The flowers are visited
by small bees, butterflies, and other insects. At the left is an
insect just alighting on a clump of the blossoms of the high-anther
form indicated below it. The black probe represents the insect's
tongue, which, as it seeks the nectar at the bottom of the tube, gets
dusted at its thickened top with the pollen from the anthers. We next
see the insect flying away, the probe beneath indicating the condition
of its tongue. It next alights on clump No. 2, in which the flowers
happen to be of the high-stigma form, as shown below. The tongue now
being inserted, brings the pollen against the high stigma, and
fertilizes the flower, while at the same time its tip comes in contact
with the low anthers, and gets pollen from them. We next see the
insect flying to clump No. 3, the condition of its tongue being shown
below. Clump No. 3 happens to be of the first low-stigma form of
flowers, and as the tongue is inserted the pollen at its tip is
carried directly to the low stigma, and _this_ flower is fertilized
from the pollen from the anthers on the same level in the previous
flower. And thus the riddle is solved by the insect. From clump to
clump he flies, and through his help each one of the pale blue blooms
is sure to get its food, each flower fertilized by the pollen of
another.
[Illustration: 1st Clump.--Flower enlarged. Insect's Tongue inserted.
Pollen high on Insect's Tongue after withdrawal from Blossom.
2d Clump.--Flower enlarged. Pollen thrust against high Stigma at top
and touching Pollen below.
Pollen at Base of Insect's Tongue after withdrawal from Blossom.
3d Clump.--Flower enlarged. Pollen thrust against low Stigma.]
Another beautiful provision is seen in the difference in size of the
pollen-grain of the two flowers, those of the high anthers being much
larger than those from the lower anthers. These larger grains are
intended for the high stigma, which they are sure of reaching, while
those of smaller size, on the top of the tongue, which should happen
to be wiped off on the high stigma, are too small to be effective for
fertilization.
Luck In Clovers
Under one guise or another the fickle goddess Fortuna would seem to
have established her infallible interpreters or mediators. The
lovelorn maiden with the daisy, its petals falling beneath her
questioning finger-tips to the alternate refrain, "He loves me. He
loves me not," is a sacrificial episode in the life of the daisy
wherever it grows.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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