

uUUfi^i), .^. ^ALP HOURS WITH INSECTS. [Packard. 



'-Hby^'eading the admirably lucid statements of Miiller and 

 Lubboclv can for himself realize how dependent the form of 

 the insect, particularly the form of the mouth-parts and legs, 

 are on the form of the flower. As Lubbock remarks, "there 

 has thus been an interaction of insects upon flowers, and 

 of flowers upon insects, resulting in the gradual modification 

 of both." 



The transfer of pollen from plants of different varieties or 

 species results in hybrids which are much larger than the 

 original forms. Cross fertilization, as this is called, is an 

 advantage to the plant, and is resorted to constantly, as 

 ever}^ body knows, by horticulturists. Lubbock quotes Dar- 

 win's remark that "all experimenters have been struck with 

 the wonderful vigour, height, size, tenacity of life, precocity 

 and hardiness of their hybrid productions." Mr. Darwin 

 was the first to show that if a flower be fertilized by pollen 

 from a different plant, the seedlings so produced are much 

 stronger than if the plant be fertilized by its own pollen. 

 Lubbock, from whom w^e take this statement, saw these ex- 

 periments of Mr. Darwin, and remarks that the difference 

 was most striking. "It is, moreover, remarkable that in 

 many cases plants are themselves more fertile if supplied 

 with pollen from a diff'erent flower, a diff'erent variety, or 

 even, as it would appear in some instances (in the passion 

 flower, for example), from a different species. Nay, in some 

 cases pollen has no effect whatever unless transferred to a 

 different flower. Fritz Midler has recorded some species in 

 which pollen, if placed on tlie stigma of the same flower, 

 has not only no more effect than so much inorganic dust, 

 but, which is perhaps even more extraordinary, in others, 

 he states that the pollen placed on the stigma of its own 

 flower acted on it like a poison. This he noticed in several 

 species; the flower faded and fell off"; the pollen grains 

 themselves and the stigma in contact with them, shrivelled 

 up, turned brown, and decayed ; while other flowers on the 



