Wild-Flower Study 



545 



6. Since the flowers bend over, how must the bee hold on to the 

 flower while she gathers nectar from the horns? As she turns around, 

 would she naturally pull out some of the saddle-bags? Catch a bee in a 

 collecting tube and see if her feet have upon them these pollen-sacs. 

 After gathering these pollen-sacs upon her feet, what happens to them 

 when she visits the next flower? Is the opening of the long pocket like a 

 trap to scrape the sacs off? Can you find on milkweed flowers any bees or 

 other insects that have been entangled in these little traps and have thus 

 perished? Try the experiment of drawing a thread into one of these 

 traps and with your lens see if the opening closes over it. 



7. How many 'kinds of insects do you find visiting the milkweed 

 flowers? Can you detect the strong odor of the flowers? Why must the 

 milkweed develop so many flowers and offer such an abundance of nectar? 



Photo by Verne Morton. 



THE WHITE WATER LILY 



Teacher's Story 



" U 'hence O fragrant form of light, 

 Hast thou drifted through the night 

 Swanlike, to a leafy nest, 

 On the restless waves at rest." 



Thus asks Father Tabb, and if the lily could answer it would have to 

 say: "Through ages untold have the waves upheld me until my leaves 

 and my flowers have changed into boats, my root to an anchor, and my 

 stems to anchor-ropes." 



There is no better example for teaching the relation between geogra- 

 phy and plant life than the water lily. Here is a plant that has dwelt so 

 long in a certain situation that it cannot live elsewhere. The conditions 

 which it demands are quiet water, not too deep, and with silt bottom. 

 Every part of the plant relies upon these conditions. The rootstock has 

 but few root hairs; and it lies buried in the silt, not only because this 

 gives it food, but because it can there act as an anchor. Rising from the 

 rootstock is a stem as pliable as if made of rubber, and yet it is strong; 



