'Blossom Hosts and Insect Guests 



three forms of these anthers are shown in my row 

 of stamens, page 25. 



Seen thus in their detached condition, how 

 incomprehensible and grotesque do they appear ! 

 And yet, when viewed at home, in their bell-shaped 

 corollas, their hospitable expression and greeting 

 are seen to be quite as expressive and rational as 

 those of other flowers. Take the mountain-laurel, 



for instance ; what a 

 sinsfular exhibition is 

 this which we may ob- 

 serve on any twilight 

 evening in the laurel 

 copse, the dense clus- 

 ters of pink - white 

 bloom waited upon by 

 soft - winged fluttering 

 moths, and ever and anon celebrating its cordial 

 spirit by a mimic display of pyrotechnics as the 

 anthers hurl aloft their tiny showers of pollen ! 



Every one is familiar with the curious construc- 

 tion of this flower, with its ten radiating stamens, 

 each with its anther snugly tucked away in a pouch 

 at the rim of its saucer-shaped corolla. Thus they 

 appear in the freshly opened flower, and thus will 

 they remain and wither if the flower is brought 



72 



