120 FIEST STUDIES IN PLANT LIFE 



6. The Honey-stores. When the insects are small, 

 or have short suckers, the honey is placed where it is 

 easily reached. We saw this in 

 the ivy flower, where the honey 

 is on the shallow disc. Any fly 

 can sip the ivy-honey. Where 

 the insect has a long sucker, as 

 in the humble bee, the honey 



Honey-tube in Larkspur. is at the foot of a long tubu- 



lar corolla or in a long spur 

 below the flower. In each case, the length of the 

 honey-tube fits exactly the length of the sucker of the 

 insect friend. In the same way, the honey-pots of the 

 gum trees are fitted for the bills and tongues of the 

 'keets and other honey-eating birds. All this helps us 

 to understand why we do not find honey in flowers that 

 have never received the visits of insects. 



7. And this sets us thinking too of the scent of 

 flowers. I would not say that we owe all the scents of 

 plants to the bees ; for we have seen that perfume may 

 help a plant in other ways. The scent of a plant is 

 not always from the honey nor from the petals. You 

 know how pleasant is the scent of sweet-briar leaves 

 and gum leaves ; and even the wood of some trees has 

 a pleasant smell. But probably we owe many of the 

 delightful scents of the garden to the ^-isits of insects. 

 If you look at those flowers that use the wind to 

 scatter their pollen, you will find that they have no 

 scent. 



8. The charm and the mystery of scent. When 

 we have said all that we can to account for the perfume 

 of the plant, there is still much that we cannot explain 

 The scent of a plant is in some ways more real to us 



