342 LUTHER BURBANK 



THE SENSES OF INSECTS 



It is needless to multiply instances of the 

 wonderful adaptations of form through which 

 the various species of plants have made sure that 

 the insects for which nectar is provided shall 

 carry out their part of the bargain. 



Some flowers have long tubes which only the 

 coiled proboscis of a moth or the slender bill of 

 a humming bird can fathom. These are sure 

 to provide pollen carriers of a bulky character 

 which only humming birds or large insects like 

 the moth could transport. Mechanisms are even 

 provided to exclude from the nectar chamber 

 bees and other small insects that could be of no 

 service to the flower. 



But such cases, while in the aggregate numer- 

 ous, are on the whole exceptional. In general the 

 plants with which the horticulturist deals, and par- 

 ticularly the plants of the temperate zone, have 

 contented themselves with a much more simple 

 arrangement, whereby the pollen bearers are so 

 arranged that any small insect that visits the 

 flower is almost sure to go away laden with pollen. 



But, in particular, provision has been made 

 by the vast majority of flowers of the orchard 

 and garden to attract a single species of insect, 

 the bee. 



