PLANTS AM) INSECTS 



107 



thor finds two imperfections in the mechanism. One is 

 the possibility of the insect securing the nectar without 

 exploding the flower; the other is that the flower contin- 

 ues to secrete honey after it has been fertilized. 



A large number of rep- 

 resentative matured pods 

 were gathered from an al- 

 falfa field less than one- 

 half mile away from a 

 large apiary, and a like 

 number from another field 

 of much the same soil, and 

 practically under like con- 

 ditions as the first field, ex- 

 cept that the second field 

 was situated twenty-five 

 miles away from a colony 

 of bees. No bees were ob- 

 served in the field, and the 

 character of the surroundings, there beim; 1 no timber or 

 probable living-places, was such as to preclude the possi- 

 bility of wild bees in the vicinity. The pods from each 

 locality were carefully opened and the number of seeds 

 in each counted. In the field near the apiary the aver- 

 age number of seeds in a pod was found to be .">..") X; 

 seeds plump; pods numerous in cluster; pods having 

 several spirals. In the other field the average number 

 of seeds in a pod was .'5.:;,'); seeds in at least one-third 

 of the pods were small and shriveled ; pods few in clus- 

 ter; short, with but few spirals. The seed crop of the 

 first field, on this basis, could be estimated at two-thirds 

 greater that that of the second field. 



FIG. 87. The many-flowered umbels 

 of the milkweed. Photographed by W. 

 C. Stevens. 



