INGENUITY IN VARIATION 131 



white or yellow — luminous colors always — to 

 attract the moths that fly after the sun goes 

 down. 



As far as I have observed, no flower which 

 blooms exclusively at night has any other color 

 except yellow or white. 



We should find many interesting half hours 

 of wonder contemplating such flowers as the 

 honeysuckle, the nasturtium, the aquilegias, 

 some clovers, and many of the lilies — which have 

 taken special precaution to place their nectar ir 

 long, hornlike tubes, out of the reach of most 

 insects, so that only the birds or insects with an 

 unusually long proboscis may become their mes- 

 sengers of reproduction. 



We should see the pathos of those flowers 

 which advertise for insects that rarely come. The 

 barberry, for example, which can be pollinated 

 only during the bright hours of a cloudless day, 

 and during a time so short that there is little 

 chance of pollen being brought by insects from 

 other blossoms. Each barberry blossom, read} 

 for the insect if it should come, but as if expect* 

 ing disappointment, makes sure of self -perpetua- 

 tion, if not of self -improvement, by jabbing its 

 pollen-laden anthers on its own stigma with a 

 motion as positive and as accurate as the jump of 

 a cat. 



