''DEFENCE, NOT DEFIANCE.'' 147 



beauty of the flower, and proves a great barrier 

 against small creeping insects getting at the honey. 

 In the Bog -bean {Menyanthes trifoliata), the upper 

 surfaces of the pink petals are fimbriated all over, 

 to prevent unwelcome insects crawling over them. 

 In the Gentians the inner arrangements of protect- 

 ive hairs cannot fail to strike a young botanist with 



Fig. 54. — Filago canescens r,^ t-..j . jt t ^ /t, n 



^^ ,^ f. tiG. 55. — Filago spathiilata {yx^u). 



(Jord). 



Both these species are covered with dense short hairs. 



admiration at their exquisite beauty. Few flowers 

 habitually fertilised by flying insects, are without 

 these " inner guards " to their nectaries. 



Not unfrequently both leaves and stems are 

 tomeittose, or woolly. This device proves a splendid 

 defence against Aphides, or plant-lice, whose immense 

 power of reproduction and suctorial appetites render 

 them among the most persistently annoying enemies 

 the higher vegetation has to cope with. Smooth- 



