134 MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



flower with a structure similar to that of the legumes. 

 There is often a similarity in seed as well ; the seeds are 

 usually in pods of a peculiar and familiar shape usually 

 like little kidneys, though some are round, as the soybeans. 

 If one tastes the seeds one is astonished to find them with 

 a good deal of similarity of flavor. I have when a boy 

 sowing clover seed caught seeds in my mouth and chewed 

 them, marveling that they tasted so much like beans or 

 peas. Nearly all the legumes have more or less showy 

 flowers. Why is this ? Be assured the brilliant coloring 

 of the pea or the clover is not meant for your delectation. 

 Things do not happen in nature. There is reason for all 

 of nature's processes. In the case of the legumes it means 

 that they can not pollinate their flowers unless they have 

 the aid of insects. The insects find the flowers because 

 they are showy. To reward the insects, or rather to in- 

 duce them to come and do the work, there is usually found 

 in the flower a sweet nectar, deliciously scented. Some 

 blooms, such as alfalfa, are most ingeniously arranged so 

 that as the insect crawls down the throat of the flower it 

 touches a little trigger, the flower violently explodes and 

 the pollen-bearing part is thrust vigorously upward to 

 perform its work of fertilization. One can imitate the 

 work of the bee in the alfalfa plant by scratching the 

 throat of the opened flower with a pin point or end of a 

 grass blade. All of this is most curious and seems in di- 

 rect refutation of any idea that the world came into ex- 

 istence without a guiding intelligence. It seems prob- 

 able that nature meant the legumes to be always cross- 

 fertilized, though this point is as yet uncertain. 



