3i8 



The Living Plant 



of plants successively, as anyone can see for himself in a garden; 

 while experiment indicates that they are primarily guided by 

 color, which, probably, in their equivalents for minds, becomes 

 associated with flowers in which the nectar is ready. This process 



.Fig. 118. — A plant of the common Blue Violet, displaying the contrast between the 

 familiar showy flowers and the cleistogamous kind, which are the bud-like struc- 

 tures on the recurved lower stems. At the right is a cleistogamous flower in section, 

 showing the contiguity of anthers and stigma. (Copied from Atkinson's Textbooks.) 



is greatly aided in nature by a correlative peculiarity in the plants 

 themselves, — namely, that different kinds of flowers which 

 blossom together at the same time are usually strongly contrasted 

 in color, as any meadow, or brookside, or autumn roadside il- 

 lustrates. It is true that the insects do not visit only one flower 



