Look for
example at the hairy stalk of the primrose flower; those little
hairs are like a forest to a tiny ant, and they protect the
flower from his visits. The Spanish catchfly (Silene otites), on
the other hand, has a smooth, but very gummy stem, and on this
the insects stick, if they try to climb. Slugs and snails too
will often attack and bite flowers, unless they are kept away by
thorns and bristles, such as we find on the teazel and the
burdock. And so we are gradually learning that everything which
a plant does has its meaning, if we can only find it out, and
that even very insignificant hair has its own proper use, and
when we are once aware of this a flower-garden may become quite a
new world to us if we open our eyes to all that is going on in
it.
But as we cannot wander among many plants to-day, let us take a
few which the bees visit, and see how they contrive not to give
up their honey without getting help in return. We will start
with the blue wood-geranium, because from it we first began to
learn the use of insects to flowers.
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