LETTING THE BEES DO 

 THEIR WORK 



NATURE HELPS Us 



OUT in the desert regions of the southwest- 

 ern United States there grows a very re- 

 markable plant called the yucca, or Span- 

 ish bayonet. Doubtless you have noticed it from 

 the car window, or you may have seen it growing 

 in a garden. Its bristling array of bayonetlike 

 leaves gives it a very individual appearance, and 

 the cluster of creamy white flowers that it puts 

 forth on its tall central stalk gives it added 

 distinction. 



But even if you are familiar with the appear- 

 ance of the plant, you perhaps have never heard 

 the wonderful story of its alliance with a partic- 

 ular species of insect, upon which alliance the 

 lives of both plant and insect absolutely depend. 

 The story is one of the most curious ones in 

 the entire range of plant and animal life. Cases 

 of so-called "symbiosis," in which an insect and a 

 plant are mutually modified for mutual aid, are 



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