PERSONALITY OF PLANTS 
Nettles, Passion-flowers, and Lilies fre- 
quently line their interiors with stiff, in-point- 
ing hairs which oppose a most effective pali- 
sade against anything that crawls, whereas a 
flyer provided with a proboscis can stand on 
the edge and, inserting his straw, drink up the 
best soda water in plantdom. ‘This existence 
of proboscides in insects which help to cross-fer- 
tilize flowers is the very finest example we have 
of true mutualism. Here is a case where mem- 
bers of two supposedly different worlds of life 
have developed highly specialized organs in 
order that they might help each other. 
It is said that Charles Darwin, after noting 
the extraordinary length of the spur of the Or- 
chid Angraecum Sesquipedale of Madagascar 
predicted that some day there would be found 
in that country a moth with a proboscis ten to 
eleven inches long. Not many years after, Dr. 
Fritz Miller verified the sagacity of the fam- 
ous scientist by finding an insect exactly answer- 
ing this description. 
The Birth-Wort (Aristolochia Clematitis) 
takes no chances with its insect visitors. In en- 
tering it, a Bee brushes easily by the down- 
[76] 
