444 



HUTCHINSON'S POPULAR BOTANY 



In Alocasia odora, a plant be- 

 longing to the same order (Aroidece), 

 snails enter the spathe by a narrow 

 opening, lose their way when inside, 

 and in their purblind efforts to re- 

 gain the entrance, dust themselves 

 with pollen, which they convey to 

 the stigmas of younger plants. 

 Delpino was of opinion that the 

 snails " are poisoned by an irritant 

 secretion within the chamber of the 

 spathe, and are so prevented from 

 devouring the flowers " after cross- 

 pollination has been effected. The 

 same naturalist has recorded obser- 

 vations on the snail-pollination of 

 Rhodea japonica and of Cypripedium 

 caudatum, and states of the former 

 that the flowers which proved fer- 

 tile were always those over which 

 snails had crawled. 



Then as to birds. In tropical, 

 and even in temperate America, 

 sun-birds and humming-birds are the 

 welcome guests of many flowers. 

 " Chiefly in the months of July and 

 August," says Waterton, ' : the tree 

 called Bois Immortel, very common in Demerara, bears abundance of red 

 blossom, which stays on the tree for some weeks ; then it is that most of the 

 species of humming-birds are very plentiful. The wild red Sage [? Salvia 

 coccinea] is also their favourite shrub, and they buzz like bees round the 

 blossoms of the Wallaba-tree [Eperua falcata]. Indeed, there is scarce a 

 flower in the interior, or on the sea coast, but what receives frequent 

 visits from one or other of the species." 



It will be noticed that the plants named by Waterton in the above 

 passage all bear red flowers ; and many naturalists have pointed out that 

 humming-birds appear to have a penchant for scarlet. Fortunately both 

 for visitors and visited, for bird guests and plant hosts scarlet blossoms 

 are plentiful in the primeval forests of Central America, where humming- 

 birds chiefly have their home. In those densely vegetated regions may 

 be seen the flaunting reds of the lianes and epiphytes of many widely 

 differing genera, with the dazzling scarlets of Begonias and Fuchsias, of 

 Sages and Lobelias, of Browneas and Erythrinas, the very construction 

 of whose blossoms in not a few instances forbids their being rifled by 



FIG. 548. SECTION OF LAPAGEEIA. 



The nectary is at the base of the flower, that is, the upper 

 part as it hangs. 



