Another bid for visits is made by perfume, which attracts insects as being generally associated with honey. Many flowers have inconspicuous corollas, or are hidden under foliage, or so placed as to risk being neglected; these call attention by fragrance, as the mignonette, the violet, or arbutus. Others, as the lilies, have large and attractive corollas, yet add perfume to size and color, to insure the securing of insect attention and help.
PLANTS AND THEIR PARTNERS
Plants which depend upon moths, or any night-flying insects, have usually strong perfume and pale color, as white or light lemon color, which can easily be seen in twilight. The odor attracts the insect in its direction; and on a nearer approach the flower is seen.
Most flowers have peculiarly bright streaks, spots, or other markings, in the direction of the honey, and the honey is placed at the bottom of the stamens, thus the insect is attracted just where he should go. The tiger lily has its startling red spots; the arum its lines of red and green; the morning-glory its vivid stripes, the jonquil its ruffled bi-colored crown, and the beauty-of-the-night its bright purple centre.
When the pollen is ripe for carrying, all the parts of the flower are at their best: the perfume is the strongest, the coloring the brightest, the nectar most abundant.
On these hot July days, when the sun draws out the richest fragrance and lights up the most brilliant colors, watch the bees and butterflies. The bee seeks the clover on one trip, mignonette on another, lilies on a third. The butterflies have no hive returning to mark their work, but you can count their visits, a dozen or more to flowers of one kind before they investigate the sweets of flowers of some other kind.
So, the plant’s partners, while gathering honey for their daily needs, toil unthinkingly to perpetuate the very flowers upon which their existence depends.
A DAUGHTER OF THE FOREST
By Evelyn Raymond