86 Life and Love. 



bearing guests, and so have tended to displace less 

 well-endowed flowers. 



Since color is enough to guide the insect in the 

 daylight, it often happens that the most brilliant 

 flowers are scentless. Honey and color being 

 necessary to attract the bee, the flowers containing 

 those two properties were doubtless most fre- 

 quently visited, the less bright or less well supplied 

 with honey being overlooked and left unfertilized 

 or obliged to resort to self-fertilization, which, 

 resulting in feebler seeds, gave the advantage to 

 the insect-fertilized flowers. 



White flowers, on the other hand, are quite uni- 

 versally fragrant — for obvious reasons. 



Any peculiarity of form or structure which could 

 give the flower an advantage in being fertilized 

 would result in the development of its seeds at the 

 expense of the less hard}' seeds of less fortunately 

 constituted plants, and so in time there might arise, 

 as undoubtedly there have arisen, many wonderful 

 and beautiful flower-forms. 



Insects, then, have been instrumental in produc- 

 ing color, odor, and form in flowers, and are neces- 

 sary to the existence of many forms of plant life. 



The hum of countless insects about the blossom- 

 ing fruit-tree is not only a soothing and delicate 

 sound in itself, but conveys a pleasing sense of 

 security concerning another season when masses 

 of bloom shall be succeeded by a rich harvest of 

 fruit. 



