16 Wild Flowers East of the Rockies 



proper moment on the body of a visiting insect. The 

 milkweed will show us how its pollen masses are 

 connected in pairs; how the legs of butterflies and 

 bees become caught in the sharp angle of this con- 

 necting link; how the pollen masses are torn from 

 their sheaths and carried to another blossom, a re- 

 verse operation freeing the insect from the valuable 

 part of his burden and leaving it at its proper destin- 

 ation; and, alas, how many insects, not strong 

 enough to free themselves, perish in this trap. 



TJie Orchids, wonderful creations, and the most 

 highly specialized of all our flowers, each being 

 adapted almost exclusively to a certain species of 

 insect, will show us their ingenious methods of plas- 

 tering their pollen masses to the eyes or the tongues 

 of their visitors. 



This study of the reproduction of plants offers a 

 very wide field for investigation, a field much differ- 

 ent from the old botanist, concerned only in the dis- 

 section of specimens. It calls for study in the field, 

 a study of Life, a study that is worth while. 



