232 Guests Welcome and Unwelcome 



straight, like horns in the wrong place. In a minute 

 or so, however, they contract and bend down, and then 

 the pollen is in exactly the right position to be caught 

 and held by the stigma of the next blossom of the 

 same species, which the insect must, one would 

 imagine, be in haste to enter if it knows how it may 

 get rid of its undesirable appendages. 



Orchid-blossoms remain in full beauty a long time, 

 whether cut or not, as long as they are not fertilized ; 

 but when insects are allowed to get at them, they fade 

 rapidly and go to seed. 



Among the flowers specially. attractive to moths in 

 Europe are the valerian, petunia, phlox, hop, nettle, 

 pink, ivy, clematis, pansy, jessamine, and honeysuckle, 

 the last being frequented, according to Gilbert White, 

 by a large sphinx-moth, which appears after dusk, and 

 feeds, like the humming-bird, on the wing, scarcely 

 ever settling, and making a humming noise with its 

 wings. 



The jessamine is probably fertilized by the hawk- 

 moth, which hovers in like manner; but jessamine-seed 

 is rare in England, for hawk-moths are rare too. But 

 the want of hawk-moths may not be the sole reason 

 for the scarcity of seed. The humble-bees are also in 

 some measure to blame, for they come to the blossoms 

 in search of nectar, and finding no perch upon which 

 they can stand to suck in the proper way — the only 

 way to benefit the flower — they get what they want 

 by gnawing through the tube of the corolla, which 

 soon drops in consequence. 



Flowers which open at night are of course especially 

 dependent upon night-flying moths ; and as colours 

 would not be seen, they are generally white or pale 



