INTELLIGENCE OF FLOWERS 



itself to this more readily — their inventive, practical, observ- 

 ant and groping spirit gave itself free scope. One of them, 

 for instance, the Sarcanthus teretifolius, probably failing in 

 its endeavour to elaborate a viscid fluid that should harden 

 quickly enough to stick the packet of pollen to the insect's 

 head, overcame the difficulty by delaying the visitor's pro- 

 boscis as long as possible in the narrov^ passages leading to 

 the nectar. The labyrinth which it laid out is so complicated 

 that Bauer, Darwin's skilful draughtsman, had to admit him- 

 self beaten and gave up the attempt to draw it. 



There are some which, starting on the excellent prin- 

 ciple that every simplification is an improvement, have boldly 

 suppressed the nectar-horn. They have replaced it by certain 

 fleshly, fantastic and evidently succulent excrescences which 

 are nibbled by the insects. Is it necessary to add that these 

 excrescences are always placed in such a manner that the guest 

 who feasts on them must inevitably set all the pollen-machin- 

 ery; in movement? 



22 



But, without lingering over a thousand very various little 

 artifices, let us end these fairy stories by studying the lures 



[ 85 ] 



