1 14 STATE POMOl^OGICAL SOCIETY. 



ONE RELATION OF INSECTS TO PLANTS. 



A. H. KiRKEAND, M. S., Maiden, Mass. 



(Abstract.) 



The practice of division of labor among human beings is 

 as old as civilization. In fact, in these later days, it is generally 

 considered that the degree of division and specialization of labor 

 is a standard by which the social development of a community 

 may be determined. In the average community each worker 

 performs one or more kinds of labor, contributes one or more 

 kinds of product and consumes a part of the products of other 

 workers. To facilitate these various operations curious tools 

 and elaborate mechanisms have been devised. Here human 

 ingenuity, taxed to the limit, has yielded its most excellent 

 product. 



The division of labor among insects and plants dates back 

 to a period whose history has never been written, and whose 

 chronology we can only surmise. A single phase of the inter- 

 relations of insects and plants, that of the fertilization of flowers, 

 furnishes a most delightful field for study and one which may 

 be investigated with profit by everv lover of the outdoor world. 

 Here we find the mysteries of flower and seed production dis- 

 closed ; here we learn of the most important service of the honey- 

 maker, and here we see mechanisms and adaptations between 

 plant host and insect guest a thousand times more marvellous 

 and exact than the best product of human brains directing 

 human hands. 



Underlying all the interesting phenomena of this entrancing 

 field of research is the great fundamental principle of reproduc- 

 tion of species, the chief end of life. All other activities and 

 stages of development are subsidiary or contributory to the 

 attainment of this grand result. The hidden seed germinates, 

 the roots develop, the leaves unfold, the stalk rises and the plant 

 grows into the form and beauty of its parents. These are nat- 

 ural stages of development, mainly dependent upon ample food 

 supply and proper climatic conditions. Granted suitable soil, 

 proper warmth and adequate water supply, nearly all our culti- 



