blossom Hosts Jiui Insect Guests 



Yielding to the temptation, I was soon standing 

 in the midst of the plants. The purple fragrant 

 umbels of bloom hung close about me on all sides, 

 each flower, with its five generous horns of plenty, 

 drained over and over again by the eager sipping 

 swarm. 



But the July sun is one thing to a bee and quite 

 another thing to me. I have lingered long enough, 

 however, to witness again the beautiful reciprocity, 

 and to realize anew, with awe and reverence, how 

 divinely well the milkweed and the bee understand 

 each other. After a brief search among the blossom 

 clusters, I return to my seclusion with a few inter- 

 esting specimens, which may serve as a text here at 

 my desk by the open window. 



Two months hence occasional silky messengers 

 will float away from the glistening clouds about the 

 open milkweed pods, but whoever thanks the bees 

 of June for them ? The flower is but a bright an- 

 ticipation — an expression of hope in the being of 

 the parent plant. It has but one mission. All its 

 fragrance, all its nectar, all its beauty of form and 

 hue are but means toward the consummation of 

 the eternal edict of creation — " increase and mul- 

 tiply." To that end we owe all the infinite forms, 

 designs, tints, decorations, perfumes, mechanisms, 



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