Night Flowers 2 1 1 



ated, with regard to each other, that pollen can 

 scarcely reach the stigma without the aid of insect 

 ministrations. 



And the mother-moth seems to understand that 

 unless the pistil is touched by pollen from the 

 anthers there will be neither seed-vessel nor seed. 

 She first bores the ovary in several places, and in 

 each hole she deposits an egg. Then she collects 

 load after load of pollen from the anthers, gather- 

 ing it up by means of a long, coiling organ, which 

 seems to have been given her for this special pur- 

 pose. She thrusts most of this pollen into the 

 holes with the eggs, so that it makes warm and 

 dry beds for the grubs that are to be. And, 

 guided by a marvellous instinct, she also places 

 some of it on the stigma of the flower. So as 

 the grubs develop in the ovary, the seeds which 

 serve as their food develop also, and with them 

 so many other seeds that the perpetuation of the 

 yucca family is ensured. 



"When the grub is full grown," says Muller, "it 

 bores a hole through the capsule, lowers itself to 

 the ground by a thread, digs its way a few inches 

 into the soil and spins a cocoon, in which it 

 spends autumn, winter, and spring." 



In its native haunts it passes into the pupa 



