223 



" The swift, violent movements of the Lepi- 

 doptera," the author of " Die Befriichtung der 

 Blumen " continues, " is of very great impor- 

 tance to the plants they visit ; for the more flow- 

 ers that will be visited in a given time, the less 

 the time spent on each, and the shorter the 

 time spent in the flight from one to another. 

 This explains how many flowers have adapted 

 themselves specially to nocturnal insects, both 

 by their light colors visible in the dusk, and by 

 their time of opening, of secreting honey, or of 

 emitting their odor. The Sphingida perform 

 their work as fertilizers with peculiar rapidity, 

 dropping their long proboscides into a flower while 

 hovering over it, and instantly hastening away 

 on their violent flight to another. Accordingly, 

 most nocturnal flowers have adapted themselves 

 specially to these Lepidoptera, hiding their honey 

 in such deep tubes or spurs that it is only acces- 

 sible to the Sphingidce" 



To the Lepidoptera is assigned the sec- 

 ond or third place as fertilizers before or 

 after the flies. No special mention of the 

 humming-birds as flower-fertilizers is made by 

 Miiller, who confines his observations strictly to 

 insects. 



Very many flowers that are only accessible to 

 the butterfly, moth, and humming-bird, on ac- 



