TURTLE-HEAD AND JEWEL- WEED 131 



the very dragon's mouth, after the honey in its 

 tip. Honey bees would find ready entrance, but 

 the burly bumblebees are far too fat. These 

 light on the lip, through inherited habit, no doubt, 

 but immediately turn to the recurved honey- 

 holding tip and plunge the proboscis through its 

 slender texture, stealing the honey from flower 

 after flower. In a day's watching I have seen 

 only bumblebees gathering honey from these 

 flowers, and I wonder about the fertilization 

 which certainly requires that insects should go in 

 and out at that open dragon mouth, not little 

 chaps, but buzzy, fuzzy creatures that will brush 

 off the pollen and carry it. 



I have no doubt about the bumblebees and the 

 turtle-heads. Each vivid white corolla of the 

 groups that stand so stiffly on the ends of the long 

 stalks seems especially made for a bumblebee. 

 He goes into it as a hand into a glove, flattening 

 himself amazingly for the entrance, but finding 

 room to work in the interior, though not enough 

 to turn about in. On his way in, what pollen he 

 already may have collected on his furry back 

 slips easily off on the very lip of the stigma 

 which waits at the strategic point with the ant- 

 lers crowding well forward, but firmly held a 



