54 WHEN DOGWOOD BLOOMS 



beautiful white leaves, each with a little pink notch 

 in the middle of its edge. This I know now to 

 be a mistake, and that the leaves which nearly all 

 children think are white flowers are just envelopes 

 keeping the true Dogwood flowers from suffer- 

 ing any harm, just as a real envelope keeps a let- 

 ter tidy. These true flowers are tiny, little, green 

 things, and we see them all packed together in 

 the center of the beautiful white leaves. It isn't 

 likely that many would know about them, and cer- 

 tainly no one would call them beautiful, if the 

 white envelopes didn't wave so gayly, calling to 

 hundreds of people to look their way. 



Insects see them as well as people, and when 

 they fly up to make them a visit, they soon get 

 to know the little green flowers which otherwise 

 they might never see. 



It seems very strange to me that flowers could 

 never live happily and bloom if they were not vis- 

 ited by insects. They are their messenger boys, 

 and carry the golden dust which helps them to 

 form seeds. They take it from one flower to an- 

 other, and if it touches just the right spot, seeds 

 soon begin to form and to grow. Sometimes the 

 insects don't even know they are carrying the 

 golden dust. It Is light, like powder, and clings 

 to their legs and wings. At the next flower's 

 house they visit, they perhaps spill a little of it, 

 and this, of course, is just what the flowers want. 



So, It Is really to catch the insects' eyes that 



