LIFE HISTORIES OF FAMILIAR PLANTS 



to produce than pollen, viz., sweet nectar, and this 

 sweet fluid pleased insects even more than pollen. 

 It may be asked : How could plants suddenly 

 produce nectar ? The answer to that is that there 

 are many plants which secrete drops of nectar 

 about their leaves as a means of keeping ants and 

 such harmful insects away from their flowers, and 

 there is no reason why nectar should not appear 

 around the floral parts for the purpose of attract- 

 ing other insects which would be welcome and 

 useful guests. 



I may seem to be making some digression from 

 the subject of those four little tubes that I dis- 

 sected from my camomile daisy, but I want the 

 reader fully to understand the elements of the 

 subject so that he may appreciate how mar- 

 vellously the structure of the daisy type of in- 

 florescence has been worked out for the good of 

 the plant, and how intricate are Nature's schemes 

 even down to the microscopic details of a camo- 

 mile flower. 



Now, when a person has produced a desirable 

 commodity, from a business point of view, the 

 next thing is to put it on the market and advertise 

 it well, so as to make it known. Man was by no 

 means a pioneer in this kind of enterprise. Plants 

 had been advertising extensively ages before man 

 came on the earth, and competition was very 

 keen amongst them when he made his advent. 

 Those plants which advertised best, or which put 

 out the most attractive posters, so to speak, 

 naturally did the largest business. 



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