Buttercups and Columbines 63 
shadow of trees and bushes where there is no other 
vegetation, at least during its flowering-time, so that 
there is little occasion for a tall stem. The Butter- 
cups grow chiefly among grass and weeds, where the 
competition for light, air, and the attention of insects 
is greater; therefore, as the surrounding vegetation 
grows, they have to grow taller. Ants are notorious 
honey-robbers if they have the chance of getting at 
honeyed flowers, but they are still enjoying their 
winter sleep when the Celandine flowers, so that there 
is no need for the plant to adopt defensive measures 
against them. The Buttercups, on the other hand, 
flower later, and to keep their flowers safe from 
insects crawling up from the ground, they have 
covered their stems and leaves with hairs, because. 
they invite the attentions only of those insects that 
are able to fly from flower to flower and carry pollen 
on their hairy bodies. Even if ants could fly, but 
little pollen could attach to their polished bodies. 
It appears from a general survey of the plant world, 
that these lobed and slashed-edged leaves are more 
useful for plants that grow a little distance from the 
ground, whilst those that grow close to it in more 
open spaces can get on quite as well with leaves of 
simpler form. It is quite clear that any plants growing 
in meadows and pastures, or along the grassy road- 
sides, are very lable to be eaten up by herbivorous 
animals. The grasses have adapted themselves in 
various ways to endure this browsing without being 
extinguished, but their story we must leave till their 
turn comes ; the Buttercups have solved the difficulty 
by developing an acrid, poisonous principle in their 
leaves and stems, so that their juices will blister the 
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