Pollination and Fertilization 173 



" Nay, more, why are all the blooms on only one side of that 

 spike? Don't tell me they want to face the light. In my 

 garden they face to all points of the compass. Can it be that, 

 just as the weight of insects enlarges the lip of Labiatce and 

 Acanthacece^ so the push of the sugar-bird has driven all the 

 flowers to one side and left the gay robber a clear vertical 

 perch ? 



" My little friend took a considerable time over his breakfast. 

 You can't conscientiously rob a hundred flowers of all their 

 honey on both sides just in a couple of minutes. But I was 

 so grateful to him for enlarging my knowledge and for 

 bringing his loveliness so near to my eyes, that by no 

 movement did I spoil his meal with any nervous tremor. If 

 he had known how I wanted to stretch my limbs in the 

 middle of it, he would have been grateful too." 



