. First studies in plant life in Australasia, with numerous questions, directions for outdoor work, and drawing and composition exercises. Botany. 120 FIEST STUDIES IN PLANT LIFE 6. The Honey-stores. When the insects are small, or have short suckers, the honey is placed where it is easily reached. We saw this in the ivy flower, where the honey is on the shallow disc. Any fly can sip the ivy-honey. Where the insect has a long sucker, as in the humble bee, the honey Honey-tube in Larkspur. is at the foot of a long tubu- lar corolla or in a long spur below the flower. In each case, the length of
. First studies in plant life in Australasia, with numerous questions, directions for outdoor work, and drawing and composition exercises. Botany. 120 FIEST STUDIES IN PLANT LIFE 6. The Honey-stores. When the insects are small, or have short suckers, the honey is placed where it is easily reached. We saw this in the ivy flower, where the honey is on the shallow disc. Any fly can sip the ivy-honey. Where the insect has a long sucker, as in the humble bee, the honey Honey-tube in Larkspur. is at the foot of a long tubu- lar corolla or in a long spur below the flower. In each case, the length of the honey-tube fits exactly the length of the sucker of the insect friend. In the same way, the honey-pots of the gum trees are fitted for the bills and tongues of the 'keets and other honey-eating birds. All this helps us to understand why we do not find honey in flowers that have never received the visits of insects. 7. And this sets us thinking too of the scent of flowers. I would not say that we owe all the scents of plants to the bees ; for we have seen that perfume may help a plant in other ways. The scent of a plant is not always from the honey nor from the petals. You know how pleasant is the scent of sweet-briar leaves and gum leaves; and even the wood of some trees has a pleasant smell. But probably we owe many of the delightful scents of the garden to the ^-isits of insects. If you look at those flowers that use the wind to scatter their pollen, you will find that they have no scent. 8. The charm and the mystery of scent. When we have said all that we can to account for the perfume of the plant, there is still much that we cannot explain The scent of a plant is in some ways more real to us. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Gillies, William. Melbourne, Whitcombe & Tombs, Ltd
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Keywords: ., bookcollectionbiodiversity, bookleafnumber133, booksubjectbotany
