6 2 6 Handbook of Nature-Study 



and position after the pollen is shed? Do they arise in the path of the 

 bee before all the pollen from the anthers of their own flower is shed? If 

 so, how are they pollenated? 



9. Suggestions for Observation in the Garden Watch a bumblebee 

 working on the larkspur and answer the following questions: How does 

 she hold on to the flower? Where does she thrust her tongue? Can she 

 get the nectar without brushing the pollen from the anthers which are 

 lifting up at the opening of the nectar-tube? In probing the older flow- 

 ers, how would she come in contact with the lifted stigmas? How do the 

 petals contrast in color with the sepals? Does this tell the bees where to 

 look for nectar? Compare the common larkspur with the bee-larkspur, 

 and notice the likeness and difference. What kind of fruit capsules has 

 the bee-larkspur? Describe the seeds, and how they are scattered. 



THE BLUE FLAG, OR IRIS 



Teacher's Story 



Beautiful lily, dwelling by still rivers 



Or solitary mere, 

 Or where the sluggish meadow brook delivers 



Its waters to the weir! 



The burnished dragon fly is thine attendant, 



And tilts against the field, 

 And down the listed sunbeams rides resplendent 



With steel-blue mail and shield. 



From "Flower-de-luce," HENRY W. LONGFELLOW. 



The iris blossom has a strange appearance, and this is because nothing 

 in it is as it seems. The style of the pistil is divided into three broad 

 branches and they look like petals ; and they have formed a conspiracy 

 with the sepals to make a tunnel for bees, leaving the petals out of the 

 plan entirely and the sepals "rise to the occasion." The petals stand up 

 lonely between the three strangely matched pairs, and all they accomplish 

 by their purple guiding lines, is to basely deceive the butterflies and other 

 insects which are in the habit of looking for nectar at the center of a 

 flower. If we look directly down into the flower of the blue flag, there are 

 ridges on the broad styles and purple veins on the petals, all pointing 

 plainly to the center of the flower, and any insect alighting there would 

 naturally seek for nectar-wells where all these lines so plainly lead. But 

 there is an "April fool" for the insects which trust to these guides, for there 

 is no nectar to be had there. Dr. Needham, in his admirable study of this 

 flower and its visitors (American Naturalist, May, 1900), tells us that he 

 has seen the little butterflies called "skippers," the flag weevils and the 

 flower beetles all made victims of this deceptive appearance; this is evi- 

 dence that the nectar guiding lines on flowers are noted and followed by 

 insects. 



The blue flag is made for bees; the butterflies and beetles are inter- 

 lopers and thieves at best. The bees are never deceived into seeking the 

 nectar in the wrong place. They know to a certainty that the sepal with 



