THE MARRIAGE OF PLANTS 175 



and conspicuousness to attract to themselves insects 

 that will distribute their pollen. 



Who can look at a meadow on a summer's day 

 and doubt that butterflies and bees are attracted by 

 the beauty and perfume of the flowers ! Evidently 

 they enjoy the perfume as much as we; and ego- 

 istic man should learn to know that beauty was not 

 made for him alone, but for even the tiniest creature 

 that exists. 



Dr. Asa Gray has long since called attention 

 to and minutely described the physiology of the 

 fertilisation of flowers. It is a subject that has 

 required volumes of description ; too deep and wide 

 a subject to be more than scanned here. Only a 

 few of the unusual cases of plant courtship and 

 marriage will be mentioned. 



There are numerous orchids, like the Angraecum 

 of Madagascar, that can be fertilised only by a 

 large moth. This moth has a proboscis ten to four- 

 teen inches long, and is very rare. The insect 

 always lands on the labellum of an orchid; and 

 while many orchids have no honey to give their 

 guests, their juicy tissue is a dainty offering to 

 many flies and other insects. 



Perhaps one of the strangest and most interest- 

 ing methods of securing cross-fertilisation is that 

 used by certain water plants which have their flower- 



