TRACHEATES I 97 



its task, and was then in turn taken into the stomach of 

 the insatiable female. In the case of the spiders, too, 

 the male must approach the female with caution as she 

 sits in the middle of her web, because she has a habit of 

 biting to death without much examination every living 

 thing that comes into her net. But in this case the 

 female signifies its compliance to the hesitating male. 

 She travels down, and hangs, head downward, by a 

 thread on which the union takes place. 



We have already compared the butterflies to flowers. 

 That was merely a superficial comparison, but we shall 

 now see that there is an intimate connection between 

 insects and flowers, because, strange as it may sound, 

 most flowers owe their origin to insects. 



We must go back a little in order to explain this 

 statement. In the plants, also, a union of male and 

 female generative products is necessary to produce a 

 new organism. The male products, which correspond 

 to the sperm of the animal, are called "pollen"; it 

 consists of an immense number of very tiny grains. 

 The pollen of the lily must be known to everyone, as 

 it is this that colours the finger yellow when you insert 

 it in the flower. This pollen has to unite with the 

 female product, which in turn may be compared to the 

 ovules of animals. The plant " egg," which is found also 

 in flowers, but only in small quantities, is in this case 

 enclosed in a capsule that is called the " seed-bud " or 

 germ, and is drawn out in a long stalk called the " pistil " 

 above. At its upmost point, the "stigma," a grain of 

 pollen touches it in fertilisation, passes gradually through 



