Fig. 237
It is believed that those seeds which are touched with life by pollen from another flower are more likely to change into healthy, hardy plants than those which are quickened by the pollen of their own flower.
Such of you as live near the sea know the lovely sea pinks (Fig. [237]), which make a rosy carpet across the salt meadows early in August. The stamens and pistils of this sea pink act in the same way.
FLOWERS THAT TURN NIGHT INTO DAY
Already we have read that certain flowers attract insects rather by their fragrance than by their brilliancy of coloring.
It is interesting to learn that some blossoms open usually only during the night. Of course, if these flowers hope to receive visitors, and get their share of pollen, they must devise some means of making known their presence to those insects which are awake and at work in the darkness.
You can understand that at night the brightest colors would be useless. A red flower is less easily seen in the darkness than a white or a yellow one; so night-opening flowers nearly always wear a white or yellow dress.