CHAPTER IX 

 NOCTURNAL OR HAWK-MOTH FLOWERS 



FLOWERS which bloom in darkness seem weird and un- 

 natural. Most conspicuous blossoms are creatures of 

 sunshine and warmth, and seek to allure diurnal insects, 

 while many of them close at the approach of night. But noc- 

 turnal flowers are adapted to pollination by moths, chiefly 

 hawk-moths. How this reciprocal relation became established 

 it would be hard to tell; but their forms, time of opening, and 

 colors easily distinguish them from the day-bloomers. 



Consider, for instance, the thorn-apples (Datura), which have 

 long, slender corolla tubes some six inches in length. (Fig. 65.) 

 They are "children of the dewy moonlight," and fill the eve- 

 ning air with their sweet fragrance. Their large, pale, salver- 

 shaped blossoms "serenely drooping awaken visions of silent 

 awe," and it is at once apparent that these stately flowers do 

 not invite the visits of bees. Some fifty years ago Felicia 

 Hemans was a popular poet in New England, and while she 

 probably knew nothing of the mysteries of flower-pollination, 

 in her lines to Datura arbor ea she instinctively recognizes the 

 fact that bees are not found in this domain of shadows : 



"Majestic plant! such dreams as lie 

 Nursed, where the bee sucks in the cowslip's bell. 

 Are not thy train: — those flowers of vase-like swell, 

 . . . worthy, carved by plastic hand, 

 Above some kingly poet's tomb to shine 

 In spotless marble." 



139 



