68 FLOWEllS OF PLANTS. 



the arras, the tapestry of the plant ; and we are 

 perfectly sensible that the blossom in very many 

 instances is essential in various ways to securing 

 and perfecting the germen ; that it often contains 

 the food of multitudes of insects, which feed on the 

 pollen, the honey, or the germen; and that the 

 odour emitted by it leads frequently various crea- 

 tures to the object in request, and by their agency 

 the fecundation and perfecting of the seeds are often 

 effected: but we are astonished at the elaborate 

 mechanism and splendour of some species, and see 

 the whole race of creation, with the exception of 

 man, utterly regardless of them. Butterflies and 

 other insects will bask on expanded flowers, and 

 frequent their disks, but it is in wantonness, or to 

 feed on the sweet liquors they contain. The car- 

 penter bee, that every summer cuts its little circular 

 patches in such quantities from my roses to line its 

 nest in the old garden door, selects the green leaves 

 only, chiefly from the China, Provence, and da- 

 mask kinds *, passing over the petals of their blos- 

 soms as useless. That splendid insect the rose 

 beetle (cetonia aurata), that beds and bathes in 

 sweetness, will partially eat the flowers of some spe- 

 cies of roses, and "lap the nectar they produce ;" 

 and a few others nibble a little ; but the liliaceous 



* This bee does not exclusively make use of the leaves of rose 

 for its purposes, as I have known it in some seasons cut away the 

 young foliage of cytisus laburnum, even when growing in company 

 with its favourite rose. 



