248 PRACTICAL COURSE IN BOTANY 
Practical Questions 
1. Of what use is the brilliant coloring of the camellia? The large 
flowers of the magnolia? The perfume of the rose and the violet? The 
fetid odor of the ailanthus? (277; Exps. 81, 82.) 
2. Are the tastes of insects in regard to odors always the same as ours ? 
(Exp. 82.) 
3. Have flowers any economic value except for decorative purposes ? 
4, Can you name any that are used as food or beverages? Any that 
furnish spices and flavorings? Drugs, medicines, or dyes? 
5. What commercial food product is obtained almost entirely from 
flowers ? 
6. Name some of the flowers that are most valued by the beekeeper. 
7. Mention another important industry that is entirely dependent on 
flowers. 
8. Name some of the flowers that are most important to the per- 
fumer. 
9. Why do the seeds of fruit trees so seldom produce offspring true 
to the stock? (256, 257, 271, 277.) 
10. Would you place a beehive near a field of buckwheat? Of clover? 
Near a strawberry bed? Ina peach orchard? Near a fig tree? Under 
a grape arbor? 
11. Why are very conspicuous flowers, like the camellia, hollyhock, and 
pelargoniums, so frequently without odor ? 
12. Why is the wallflower “sweetest by night”? (280.) 
13. What advantage can flowers like the morning-glory gain by their 
early closing? (280.) 
14. Of what use to the cotton plant, Japan honeysuckle, and hibiscus 
is the change of color their blossoms undergo a few hours after ‘opening? 
(277, 278, 280.) 
15. Why does the Japan honeysuckle, which has run wild so abundantly 
in many parts of our country, produce so few berries? (278, 280.) 
16. If the trumpet vine grows in your neighborhood, examine a number 
of corollas and account for the dead ants found in them. Account also 
for the large hole (sometimes three quarters of an inch in diameter) often 
found near the base of the tube. (281.) 
17. Do yousee any connection between the greater freshness and beauty 
of flowers early in the morning, and the activity of bees, birds, and butter- 
flies at that time? 
18. The flowers most frequented by humming birds are the trumpet 
honeysuckle, cardinal flower, trumpet vine, horsemint (Monarda), wild 
columbine, canna, fuchsia, etc.; what inference would you draw from 
this as to their color preferences? 
