CHEMISTRY OF MAJSURES 173 



Here the little violet chooses " a green and shady bed " 

 because it loves coolness and moisture, but in order to 

 let the world (or the bees) know that it is there, the flower 

 must not carry its ' * modesty ' ' too -far. Hence the ' ' sweet 

 perfume." The violet, i.e. the sweet violet, is one of 

 those flowers which employ a fragrant scent as an attrac- 

 tion to insects for cross-fertihzation purposes, whilst its 

 cousin, the dog-violet, just grows boldly on the hillside 

 in full sunlight, and has no scent. Other flowers depend 

 on their briUiance of colour, hke the poppy of the fields, 

 " all silk and flame." Some of them mimic the outHne 

 of a butterfly, such as the peaseblossom, whilst " the 

 flowers that bloom in the spring, tra-la " are nearly always 

 yellow in colour because yellow reflects the greatest amount 

 of light, and so shows them up for as long a period as 

 possible at a time when the days are neither lengthy nor 

 bright, and insects are few and far between. Again, 

 there are flowers which have neither scent nor brilhance 

 of colour, as, say, flowering ivy, Hme, and fuchsias. These 

 are more richly stored with honey, as the bees soon dis- 

 cover, and which is taken by them as wages for the work 

 of pollen mixing. Lastly there are flowers which are 

 not so dependent upon insects, as tomato-bloom, garden 

 poppies and others. In these the genital organs are 

 placed so close together that the waving of the plant in 

 the breeze or a gentle shaking by the human hand will 

 ensure the pollen adhering to the desired spot and the 

 germination passing down the tubes of the pistil into the 

 ovary itself. 



AU these are devices directed to one end, viz. the carry- 

 ing on into the next generation, and as we see again, 

 Nature proves herself here also to be the grand mistress 

 of arts and crafts. If she cannot get what she wants by 

 asking, she will take it. If she cannot take it, she will 

 go and flatter somebody else until the thing that is really 

 wanted comes of its own free will, so what are you to do ? 



Different plants feed on different constituents in the 



