114 TREE PLANTER'S MANUAL. 



blossom, a wasp feeding on a honeysuckle or pink, a bumblebee feasting 

 on a wild rose, until his velvet coat is covered with golden dust, can doubt 

 the efficiency of the insect in collecting pollen? 



INSECT PARTNERSHIP. 



In every business all the partners must have some profit. The insect 

 partner in flower-increasing has honey for his gains. As the pollen ripens 

 the flower secretes a drop of honey for the insect partner. The ripe pollen 

 and the ready honey are simultaneous. Just at this crisis, too, the hues of 

 the flower are gayest to lure the insect eye, and the perfume is also most 

 penetrating to call the attention of the winged-partner in the flower 

 business. 



FRUCTIFYING THE SEED GERMS. 



Into the blossom goes the insect, and comes out dusty with pollen; its 

 legs, body, wings are covered with the minute precious grains. Off then 

 to another flower, and evidently as it creeps into the remote honey drops, 

 it rubs against the sticky stigma of the pistil and leaves thereon the desired 

 pollen to fructify the waiting seed germs. 



SAME KIND OF FLOWERS. 



But stay, the pollen of a rose will not make the seed germs of a lily 

 grow; the tulip can do nothing with the pollen from a honeysuckle; the 

 pollen of a buttercup can only be used by a buttercup. To do any good, 

 the pollen must go from one flower of a kind to another of the same kind. 



INSECTS NOT ERRATIC. 



How can this safe conveyance be assumed by any creature so erratic as 

 an insect ? But insects are not so erratic as they seem. Watch them. 

 They have a singular and fixed habit in feeding. They go always from 

 flowers of a kind to other flowers of the same kind. Watch a bee. It 

 goes from clover to clover, not from clover to daisy. The butterfly flits 

 here and there, but watch it settle. If it begins with a pink it keeps on 

 with pinks. If it begins with golden rod, it keeps on with golden rod. If 

 I have in my garden only one petunia, the butterfly which feeds upon that 

 will fly over the fence for more petunias, and will not be beguiled on that 

 round by my sweet peas. 



UNALTERABLE HABIT. 



God has fixed this unalterable habit in insects. They feed for a long 

 time on the same kind of flowers, and thus convey pollen where it is needed 

 and can be used. The butterfly, which serves itself with its feet for stand- 

 ing, but almost never for walking, is one of the most active partners of the 

 flower. Because, being almost wholly a flying insect, the butterfly is in no 

 danger of wasting pollen by rubbing it off on leaves or stems, where it 

 must perish. Loaded with pollen from one flower, the butterfly goes 

 speedily to the waiting heart of another flower. Besides, it eats only 

 honey and never pollen, and it spends its entire time revelling from bloom 

 to bloom, while its long tube enables it to feast upon every flower that 

 grows. 



