BOTANY 



888 



BOTANY 



TWO OF THE CARNIVOROUS (INSECT-EATING) PLANTS 



fruit and produce seed the final purpose of 

 every plant, useful or troublesome alike, that 

 springs from the ground a plant must have its 

 blossoms fertilized. That is, the dusty, yellow 

 or brown pollen must reach the part of the 

 flower where the seeds are to be formed. The 

 whole process may take place within a single 

 flower, but almost all plants, especially those 

 which have showy or sweet-smelling blossoms, 

 thrive better if the pollen comes from another 

 plant (see CROSS-FERTILIZATION). For carrying 

 this pollen the plants are dependent upon the 

 wind or upon insects, and wonderful indeed 

 are the attractions which the flowers have 

 developed to entice the insects into doing them 

 this service. The bright colors, the curious 

 shapes, the sweet scents, above all the delicious 

 nectar or honey, are all but lures for the roving 

 insects, and some blossoms have special fea- 

 tures which make it impossible for any insect 

 but that which best fulfils their purpose to 

 enter them (see BEE). 



This cross-fertilization boys and girls cannot 

 observe for themselves in its more technical 

 phases, but much that is interesting about it 

 they can trace. For instance, they may watch 

 a patch of red and white clover and discover 



what insects visit it. How many blossoms can 

 a honey-seeking insect visit in five minutes? 

 Does an insect visit first one flower and then 

 another of an entirely different kind first a 

 clover, then a nasturtium in a near-by garden 

 or does it take only flowers of one kind? 



Interesting and Curious Plants. Plants are 

 not "alive" in the sense that animals are; that 

 is, they cannot move about and they have no 

 intelligence to help adapt themselves to their 

 circumstances; but some of them display traits 

 which might almost lead a plant-lover to 

 declare that they actually have -sense. There 

 are the insect-eating plants, for instance, with 

 their various ways of catching and holding 

 insects until the digestible parts have been 

 absorbed; they are quite as adept at catching 

 their insect food as is the whip-poor-will, which 

 flies through the air with its mouth open, sim- 

 ply swallowing all that fly into its mouth (see 

 CARNIVOROUS PLANTS). Then there are the 

 uninvited guests, or parasites, plants which are 

 not willing to do the work necessary to the 

 preparation of food, and so fasten themselves 

 upon some other hard-working plant and draw 

 their nourishment from it until in the majority 

 of cases the host dies (see PARASITES). 



