I 

 204 The Great World's Farm ^ 



(Tritoma), which blossoms in the late summer, and may 

 be seen creeping quite into the tubes; and they are also 

 said to fertilize the dahlia, which is shunned by bees. 



''Where the bee sucks honey the wasp sucks poison," 

 is a common saying, and as devoid of foundation as such 

 sayings often are. It is a libel on the w^asp, and too 

 flattering for the bee; for if the bee does suck and store 

 honey, which last the wasp does not pretend to do, it also 

 secretes poison, and its sting is generally considered much 

 the worse of the two. 



To small, flat flowers, whose nectar hes so near the sur- 

 face as to require little probing for, beetles and small flies 

 are almost as useful as bees, and may be seen in crowds 

 on such little blossoms as those of the wild carrot, and 

 others of the same family which grow together in flat 

 heads or umbels. Even the water-side midges do their 

 part among the small flowers of the river banks. 



All sorts of little flies, gnats, and midges are attracted 

 also to the arums, some by the prospect of pollen and 

 nectar, others, as the carrion-flies, by the flesh-like ap- 

 pearance and smell of many foreign species, on which 

 they even lay their eggs, supposing that their grubs will 

 be well fed; another illustration of what was said before, 

 that if they existed solely for the purpose of attracting 

 insects, all flower scents might just as well be what human 

 beings consider disagreeable. 



The arrangements of the arum family are so curious 

 as to be worth a little special attention. We most of us 

 know the so-called "arum-lily," with its white flower with 

 the golden scepter. The flowers of the arum are con- 

 tained in a sheath, properly called a spathe, which is 

 snowy white in the "arum-lily" and greenish in the wild 



