418 



HUTCHINSON'S POPULAR BOTANY 



and their removal does not injure the plant. In other lands cultivators, 

 who are perhaps more observant than the same class in this country, 

 have taken advantage of these facts for the protection of their fruit crops. 

 The orange growers in the province of Canton, instead of depending on 



natural arrange- 

 ments, collect ants' 

 nests and connect 

 them with their 

 trees ; and a similar 

 practice is adopted 

 by the fruit-growers 

 in parts of Italy. 

 (See Step's Mess- 

 mates: a Book of 

 Strange Partner- 

 ships.} 



That the quanti- 

 ty of nectar secreted 

 by the flower varies 

 greatly in different 

 plants goes without 

 the saying. While 

 in some species the 

 amount is so small 

 as to be hardly dis- 

 coverable, in others 

 the blossoms liter- 

 ally flow with it. 

 In the interesting 

 Honey-flowers (Meli- 

 anthus), a genus of 

 strongly scented 

 South African 

 shrubs, the secre- 

 tion is enormous. 

 In Melianthus major 

 an actual ' ; rain of 

 honey " pours from 

 the cowl-shaped 

 petals when the iii- 

 florescence is 



shaken. In the wonderful Coryanthes, a genus of tropical orchids, the 

 nectareous fluid is secreted near the base of the stalk, and drips con- 

 tinuously into the helmet-shaped lip at the time of flowering. Upwards 



Photo by] 



FIG. 521. FIELD WOOD-RUSH (Luzula campestris). 



. Slep 



A wind-fertilized plant, with grass-like leaves fringed with soft white hairs. The 

 flowers in are cymes, mostly on slender, swaying branches. 



