LIFE HISTORIES OF FAMILIAR PLANTS 



humble-beeS; other flowers want moths and 

 butterflies, others beetles, and still others flies. 

 Also, just as the foxglove advertises for a particular 

 class of bees, so do other plants advertise for 

 certain kinds of moths. The Honeysuckle (Loni- 

 cera Caprifolmm), (Fig. in, Plate 80), for ex- 

 ample, crowds together its tubular flowers into a 

 cluster, thereby making a greater display to con- 

 trast against the hedgerow foliage. The flowers 

 are richly scented and pale in colour, because 

 these features make them attractive to the night- 

 flying moths for which they are specialised. 



The unopened flower-buds are directed up- 

 wards, but, as they mature, each tubular blossom 

 bends down and the lower lobe of the tube then 

 spreads out, the others quickly following. Within 

 two or three minutes the flower has opened and 

 its stamens are spread ready to receive the fertil- 

 ising moths. Its scent is faint until the approach 

 of evening, when it becomes powerful, and so it 

 remains until well upon midnight, for that is 

 the period during which its winged visitors come 

 to feed. 



The particular kind of insects for which it 

 caters are known as hawk-moths. These moths, 

 while poised en their rapidly vibrating wings, sip 

 nectar from the depths of the flowers by means of 

 their long tongues or probosces. Of course, such 

 insects require no platform to alight upon ; and 

 therefore the blossoms provide none. 



How powerful a factor the scent of the honey- 

 suckle is in attracting insect visitors is instanced 



188 



