MUTUAL BENEFITS OF INSECTS AND PLANTS. 1G1 



made to secure cross fertilization. The list might be almost indefinitely ex- 

 tended, and yet find something different in nearly all of them. Flowers shut 

 up, go to sleep, bend over in all manner of ways to prevent themselves from 

 wind and weather, to retain the essential parts in a fresh condition until tho 

 time when the proper insects are likely to be about. If they are intended for 

 the visits of moths, they open when the moths are likely to fly, and do not waste 

 their sweetness in daylight. If, like the dandelion, they are dependent to any 

 degree upon bees and other day insects, there is no need of their remaining 

 wide awake all night. They had better close up as they do, and keep for the 

 best part of several days. So you see, the honey is placed in the flower as 

 wages to pay the bees for serving the plants. The colors and odors are adver- 

 tisements to call the attention of insects to the rich supplies of food in store for 

 them. It may be said that the honey is there for the bees, but primarily it is 

 there for the good of the plant, secondarily for the good of the insect. 



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