Vegetable and Animal 



they are drowned and digested without any hope of 

 escape. 



Plants are seldom guilty of stupid, senseless cruelty. 

 This Nepenthes is on the same moral scale as a fisher- 

 man, but one cannot say the same of Araujia sericifera 

 (see p. 150). The way in which all sorts of insects are 

 employed to carry pollen benefits both themselves, other 

 animals, and the plant-world. 



The migrations of birds depend upon the first ap- 

 pearance of the insect swarms on which they feed. So 

 in southerly places, and in the lowlands, swallows and 

 other migrants arrive earlier in the season than in the 

 north and alpine districts. 



Nor is it only insects that are used in pollination ; 

 many of the finest flowers in subtropical and tropical 

 lands are haunted by the brilliant, flashing little sun- 

 birds and humming-birds. Even in this country one 

 may see an occasional sparrow picking at the heads of 

 ragweed. Yet there is a great difference between any 

 ordinary flower and the flaming scarlet blossoms, with 

 curved narrow tubes, of some lobelias and salvias. 

 A sun-bird has a thin, narrow, and curved beak, and if 

 his wife is responsible for his gorgeous clothing, its 

 colour is a good example of her taste. These jewels 

 of nature are as different as possible from the ordinary 

 bird which was its ancestor, and which picked insects 

 out of honey. Bats, kangaroos, and small mammals 

 are also used to carry pollen according to report. 



Another way in which the animal enemies of plants 

 are utilised by them is in the carrying about of fruits 

 and seeds. 



The Harpagophytum and Martynia of South Africa 

 and other fruits with ingenious spiny, hooked or sticky 

 attachments have also been a favourite and familiar part 

 of the botany of several years ago. 



202 



