94 FIRST STUDIES IN PLANT LIFE 



pleasant to you, but a smell that draws the flesh-flies 

 frbm far and wide. 



3. " So, then," you exclaim, " a fl,ower is a part of the 

 plant meant to attract insects ?" Well, you are getting 

 near to the secret ; you are " burning " as we say in 

 the parlour game ; but you are not quite right yet. 



4. Is a flower always scented ? Let us stroll out 

 into a field of wheat in the spring-time and seek the 

 secret there. The graceful, rustling heads welcome 

 us, but not by gay colour. By scent, then ? No, not 

 by scent. There is nothing to catch the eye of that 

 bee that is humming past ; and there is no smell 

 to draw the flies. You may watch for a long 

 October day, and never see a bee nor a fly go near to 

 a wheat-flower. No insect comes, and yet all- goes 

 well with the wheat-plant ; and the beautiful heads 

 whisper as they bend to the spring breeze. See how 

 the pollen is blown about as the wind freshens ! Can 

 that be the secret ? Does the wheat-flower use the 

 wind to bear its pollen ? Does the wind take the 

 place of insects ? Yes, that is the secret of the 

 wheat-flower, and it is the secret of all the grasses 

 and reeds and of many trees. 



5. " So, then," you say, " the flower is something that 

 requires to scatter its pollen, and it matters httle 

 whether an insect carries it or the wind carries it ?" 

 Now you are nearer still to the secret. A flower must 

 scatter the golden dust so that it may fall on its own 

 seed-case or on the seed-case of another flower of 

 the same kind ; for you must know that no flower 

 can make seed unless the pollen falls on it. 



