^Blossom Hosts and Insect Guests 



certain to be a hole in every one of them at its 

 maturity. But let us select one which is as yet 

 entire. If with a sharp knife-point we cut gently 

 through its walls, we disclose the curious secret of 

 its abnormal shape — " the worm i' the bud," as shown 

 in my accompanying sketch — and what an eloquent 



story of blighted 

 \w hopes i t s interior 



condition reveals ! 

 This tiny whitish 

 caterpillar, which we 

 disclose in the petal 

 dungeon, has been 

 a prisoner since its 

 birth, during the 

 early growth of the 

 bud. One by one 

 the stamens and also 

 the stigma have been devoured for food, until the 

 mere vestiges of them now remain. With no sta- 

 mens to bequeath pollen and no stigma to welcome 

 other pollen, what need to open, what need to 

 elongate a corolla tube for the tongue of a moth 

 whose visit could render no functional service ? So 

 thus our blighted buds refuse to open, where bloom- 

 ing would be but a mockery. 



54 



