194 THE HUMAN SIDE OF PLANTS 
with that of human beings. Consider those plants 
which open at night only, when the crawling insect 
pest is not about, while certain winged pollen-bear- 
ers are still at their work; there are some plants, 
which, being fertilised by but one kind of insect, 
open and emit perfume only during the hours when 
this insect is abroad. Consider the bribing habits of 
certain plants, offering sweets to the crawling in- 
sects below, and barricading, by means of numerous 
sharp thorns, their way to the honey and pollen 
nests above. Consider those flowers which, wishing 
to keep out falling moisture but having no wish 
to close their petals against the visiting bee, droop 
on their stems, and in their pendent position run 
no danger of having their pollen harmed. 
These actions and habits are not merely the “nat- 
ural way” of these particular plants; for the night- 
bloomers, kept free entirely from crawling insects, 
become in time day-bloomers; the plants fertilised 
by a particular insect, if supplied at all hours with 
ample fertilisation, open and emit perfume freely 
at other than the hours of this insect’s flight; the 
bribers and thorn-bearers, in domestication and free 
from insect pests, lose their bribing sacks and their 
thorns; and the plants whose flowers in the wild 
state depended, will raise their mouths fearlessly 
to the sun, if protected from the rain under glass. 
