. The natural history of the farm : a guide to the practical study of the sources of our living in wild nature . Natural history. 266 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FARM arrangement is doubtless most convenient for the visitors; it is the one most commonly adopted, and most successful. And as there are groceries that cater to a select and limited patronage, so there are flowers that put their nectar out of reach of common visitors, and reserve it for those that are epecially endowed—not with long pocketbooks, but with long proboscides. They secrete their nectar at the bottom of deep and narrow corolla
. The natural history of the farm : a guide to the practical study of the sources of our living in wild nature . Natural history. 266 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FARM arrangement is doubtless most convenient for the visitors; it is the one most commonly adopted, and most successful. And as there are groceries that cater to a select and limited patronage, so there are flowers that put their nectar out of reach of common visitors, and reserve it for those that are epecially endowed—not with long pocketbooks, but with long proboscides. They secrete their nectar at the bottom of deep and narrow corolla tubes or spurs, or behind barriers of sharp offensive spines, or glandular hairs. The nectar of certain trumpet-like con- volvulus flowers can be sucked only by long-tongued hum- ning-bird moths. That in the tightly- closed bilabiate corollas on the mon- key-flowers can be had only by bum- blebees, having to open the mouth of the corolla and enter. So, when we watch the flower-clumps in the fields, we shall see but few visitors about such specialized flowers as turtle- heads (fig. 103), and butter-and-eggs, while the' outspread tables of open corollas of such as meadowsweet (fig. 104) and wild carrot are thronged with visitors of many sorts. The colors of summer flowers are in themselves very beautiful and satisfying. Their forms are wonderfully varied and interesting. But colors and forms are alike increasingly instructive when we learn what roll they fill in the drama of life. And we shall enjoy our contact with nature better. Fig. 107. Beard-tongue (Penlslemon pubescens) a, the flower; 6, section of the same, showing the trigger- like bearded upper stamen, which is declined so that it overlies the stalks of the pollen-bearing stamens. The insect, entering where indicated by the arrow, cfrpncrf'h in clutching this stamen shakes pollen from the others ^treilgLIl down upon its own back. (From the author's "General ;). Please note that these images are extra
Size: 2015px × 1240px
Photo credit: © The Book Worm / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectnaturalhistory, booky
