138 Flowers and their Unbidden Guests. 



they would have sought, and moreover would have 

 found, in the flower, is already offered them here in rich 

 abundance. The creeping insects are not fastidious. 

 Nectar in one place is the same to them as nectar in 

 another. They are content with that which is first 

 offered, and so do not trouble themselves to climb 

 farther up to the flowers. In Impatiens tricornis the 

 stipules are so frequented by Myrmica Icevimodis NyL 

 that I have often seen three of these ants upon a single 

 stipule; and yet, though I have examined hundreds 

 of plants of this species, and though its nectariferous 

 flowers have no other protection whatsoever to keep 

 out these little creatures, I have never seen a single 

 ant inside a blossom. They would, indeed, be very un- 

 welcome guests, inasmuch as they could reach the nec- 

 tariferous spur without coming into contact with the 

 ;t)ollen, or, at a later stage of the flowering, with the 

 stigma. They would thus consume the nectar without 

 profit, and not only so, but by diminishing the attrac- 

 tion would limit and hinder the visits of those insects, 

 which, being larger and coming on the wing, would in 

 entering the flower necessarily come into due and suc- 

 cessive contact with the pollen and the stigma. 



As with Impatiens tricornis, so is it with other plants 

 where nectar is se6reted on the leaves. Though these 

 leaf-formations may present no mechanical hindrance 

 nor offer any insurmountable barrier to small creeping 

 ants, they yet serve to divert such visitors from the 



