230 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS 



what is the deep-laid plan by which this end is 

 assured ? My specimens here on the desk will 

 disclose it all. 



Here are two bees, a fly, and a beetle, each hang- 

 ing dead by its legs from a flower, an extreme 

 sacrificial penalty, which is singularly frequent, 

 but which was certainly not exacted nor con- 

 templated in the design of the flower. A care- 

 ful search among almost any good -sized cluster 

 of milkweeds will show us many such prisoners. 

 As in all flowers, the pollen of the milkweed 

 blossom must come in contact with its stigma be- 

 fore fruition is possible. In this peculiar family 

 of plants, however, the pollen is distinct in char- 

 acter, and closely suggests the orchids in its con- 

 sistency and disposition. The yellow powdery 

 substance with which we are all familiar in or- 

 dinary flowers is here absent, the pollen being 

 collected in two club-shaped or, more properly, 

 spatula -shaped masses, linked in pairs at their 

 slender prolonged tips, each of which terminates 

 in a sticky disc -shaped appendage united in V- 

 shape below. These pollen masses are concealed 

 in pockets (B) around the cylindrical centre of the 

 flower, the discs only being exposed at the sur- 

 face, at five equidistant points around its rim, 

 \yhere they lie in wait for the first unwary foot 



