212 Field, Forest, and Wayside Flowers 



stage about fourteen days before the Georgia 

 yucca (Yzicca recurvifolid) begins to bloom, and 

 emerges from its temporary tomb as the flowers 

 expand. But it is probable that our average 

 winters are too severe for a transplanted southern 

 family, and that most of the Pronuba yuccasella 

 larvae in our gardens freeze with the freezing 

 soil, and thus perish untimely. Some few, how- 

 ever, survive the winter evidently and make use 

 of the yucca blossoms as their mother did before 

 them, for in most seasons we will find a few cap- 

 sules full-grown and symmetrically formed, but 

 with holes in them. 



And so wounded and marred, the flowers have 

 fulfilled the purpose of their lives, and attained a 

 development which they might not otherwise have 

 reached. 



Occasionally one finds a perfectly-developed cap- 

 sule which is not pierced, showing that the yucca 

 receives visits, few and far between, from some 

 nocturnal guest which fertilizes the blossoms with- 

 out marring them. But in many seasons no effi- 

 cient callers come to the flowers and no capsules 

 form at all. 



Many of the white Japan lilies are likewise dis- 

 appointed, so large a proportion of them, in fact, 



