SUMMER WILD FLOWERS 



265 



Fig. 104. Meadow-sweet 

 feast outspread. 



arranged in flat-topped clusters, 

 either heads or umbels. 



The clustering of the flowers 

 is directly related to visitation 

 by insects, the distributors of 

 their pollen. Close grouping 

 greatly economizes labor on the 

 part of their visitors. A bee 

 must pass from one pea flower 

 to others by separate flights, but a score of flowers massed 

 together into a clover head may be visited without interven- 

 ing flight, and with only a slight 

 turning of the body about while 

 standing on the top of the cluster. 

 While insects are most abundant in 

 the summer season, flowers most 

 abound then, also; and there is 

 competition for. the services of the 

 bees. 



Their patronage is desired. So the flowers in their natural 

 evolution have perfected ways of drawing visitors, that 

 singularly parallel the methods of the corner grocery in 

 ] drawing trade. First, they get in a stock of 

 desirable goods — nectar and pollen. Then they 

 advertise that they have got it and are ready 

 for business. They advertise with bright colors 

 and attractive odors. Their signs are showy 

 corollas that often bear special "guide marks" 

 about the entrance. Then they array their 

 wares to suit their visitors' convenience. They 

 set their open corollas all out in line on a nar- 

 row spike as at a common counter; or, they 

 F Te'n™athering s P re ad them out flatwise in a head or corymb 

 hon!y r b!£. the or umbel, as on a common table. This last 



Fig. 105. Side view of the ab- 

 domen of a bee, showing pollen 

 brushes. 



