1 8 Anis in Relation to Flowers. [Sess. 



visitors see the flags, and they come to the doors, and they are 

 tempted to enter, and in doing so they usually leave behind 

 a little of what they brought in with them ; and then they 

 follow the direction-marks, and go to one of the stalls where, 

 say, some sweets are to be had, and they take these, and in 

 doing so leave behind some more of the commodity desired. 

 The visitors have got something they wanted, and so have the 

 people in the bazaar. Then the visitor departs, and every- 

 body is happy all round. So with flowers. 



You will generally see at the door of the bazaar one or two 

 policemen, and some special devices for excluding people who 

 want to get the good things without giving anything in re- 

 turn. So, too, with flowers. 



A flower is a bazaar. There are little niceties carefully 

 stowed away in the back part of the flower, in the shape of 

 drops of nectar ; the bright petals of the flower are the flags 

 making known the fact to insects afar off that something of 

 special interest to them is to be had by those who come in the 

 right way, and who bring with them a quid fvo quo. The 

 flower bedecks itself with brightly coloured stripes, which 

 politely inform the visitor which way it is considered best to 

 go to get what is wanted. And it sets forth a little feast as 

 a reward to the visitor who is bidden as a guest. 



So a Bee, for example, starts some fine morning to visit 

 some particular kind of flower in search of honey and pollen ; 

 and she keeps to that kind of flower the whole of that day, 

 never by any chance visiting another kind. Her hairy back 

 and body rub off the pollen from the anthers of the first 

 flower visited, and while she is rummaging about to get at the 

 tiny feast of honey at the far end of the next flower, she 

 produces the desired effect of transferring some pollen from 

 plant No. 1 to plant No. 2. That done, the plant has attained 

 its chief object in life. 



When this Address was given a large number of illustra- 

 tions of the various devices employed by plants in order to 

 attain to this result were shown on the screen. But the 

 subject has been so frequently illustrated that the reader will 

 only have to turn to almost any one of the many books 

 dealing with the natural history of plants (Kerner's most 

 especially) to find abundant examples shown. 



