238 



LESSOyS WITS PLANTS 



also crowd into the tubes. Bumble-bees often bite open the nec- 

 taries and steal the honey from the outside; this kind of theft is 

 not infrequent in other flowers. 



276. The pupil should 

 now examine any of 

 the buttercups, or 

 crowfoots. The com- 

 mon one in the East 

 is shown in Fig. 228. 

 If the petals are pulled 

 away, each one is seen to 

 bear a minute gland or lip 

 (6) at its base. This is 

 the nectary. The disk -like 

 base of the grape flower 

 (Fig. 208) is also a nec- 

 tary. As a rule, ento- 

 mophilous flowers bear nec- 

 taries, and they are usually 

 located in the very base or 

 bottom of the flower. 



Fig. 228. 



Flowers of common 

 buttercup. 



Suggestions.— The pupil should now 

 look for the nectaries in all flowers 

 which he suspects to be insect-polli- 

 nated. The presence of spurs and 

 sacs, and also of glands, is presumptive evidence of nectaries. 

 The presence of insects about flowers always raises the presump- 

 tion that those flowers are entomophilous ; the pupil should, there- 

 fore, determine what visitors the common flowers may have. 



