ee 
40 THE FERTILISATION OF FLOWERS. [CHAP. 
all this trouble? What benefit do they derive from 
the transaction? These are questions which will 
probably have occurred ere this to the reader's mind. 
They are easily answered by the facts—so, too, are 
many others in connection with flowers that used to 
puzzle people to explain satisfactorily. Why are 
flowers provided with honey and sweet perfumes? 
Why are flowers highly coloured? Why do flowers 
“so to sleep”—ze., close their petals—at night, and 
in rainy weather ? 
These and many other questions are answered 
by modern science satisfactorily. The insects are 
attracted from a distance by the perfume of the 
flower; they are shown the exact spot by the colour 
of the corolla ; and they evidently are aware, from in- 
herited instinct, that sweet odours and bright hues are 
the outward signs of a store of honey. The insects 
find their reward in the honey; the honey, then, is 
only a bait to induce the insect to visit the flower, 
and detach and carry the pollen, Flowers which are 
fertilised by bees or butterflies, which fly by day, 
close their petals at night, for it would not be to their 
advantage to have their honey stolen by night-flying 
moths, who cannot fertilise them. On the contrary, 
night-flowering plants keep the petals closed during 
the day, because they are fertilised by moths; and 
to render them conspicuous they are light in colour. 
Thus, the White Campion, which flowers at night, is 
of a silver-white hue, and the light-yellow Evening 
Primrose has the additional assistance of a very 
strong sweet perfume. Flowers, too, close in rainy 
weather to protect their honey. Many flowers which 
