LIFE HISTORIES OF FAMILIAR PLANTS 



showy petals further to advertise the fact that the 

 nectar is there and ready for all the winged insects 

 that care to come to the feast, it is really doing 

 something entirely in its own interests, and not 

 providing these things for the gratification of man, 

 or even of the insects, for that matter ; the insect 

 is catered for by the plant only so far as the latter 

 serves its own ends. To put the matter briefly, 

 the plant needs the help of the insect to convey 

 its fertilising pollen from bloom to bloom to make 

 its seeds fertile, and bribes with nectar to gain this 

 end. Beyond that point the plant's interest (if we 

 may term it such) in the insect absolutely termin- 

 ates. 



Now, in our rambles during May we are almost 

 sure to find in the moist woodlands, or by the 

 watery ditches, blooms of the curious wild arum, 

 cuckoo-pint, w^ake-robin, lords-and-ladies, as you 

 may like to call it, some of which are illustrated 

 in Fig. 21 (Plate 15), and the plant more in detail 

 in Figs. 2'] and 29 (Plates 18 and 19). We shall 

 be struck by the quaintness of the form and 

 colouring, for the arum is one of the miost singular 

 plants in the British flora. However, before going 

 into particulars regarding this extraordinary floral 

 structure, I want to take you back to the begin- 

 ning of things, and show how the plant started its 

 career. But, first, let me mention a httle secret 

 regarding the bloom itself. 



When a bloom is found fully opened, like that 

 shown in Fig. 27 (Plate 18), it will be observed that 

 it narrows off to form a kind of neck just below 



32 



