THE GUELDER-ROSE 77 



effectually replace the felted hairs of the Wayfaring- 

 tree, and the lobing of the leaf is the result of this 

 folding. 



The honey-glands, according to Lord Avebury, 

 serve as an attraction to ants and wasps, which act 

 as a bodyguard to protect the tender young leaves, 

 destitute as they are of felted hairs, from caterpillars 

 and other insects. 



Professor Marshall Ward suggests that the pointed 

 lobes of this and similar leaves may act as "drip- 

 tips," enabling the leaf speedily to run off superfluous 

 water which might otherwise clog the transpiratory 

 system. 



Towards the end of May or early in June the 

 stronger shoots are terminated with the opening 

 clusters of blossom. Their branching is complex, but 

 may be termed a "corymbose cyme" in that the 

 flowers towards the centre are the first to open, and the 

 greater length of the stalks to the outer ones brings 

 them all more or less to a level. As we shall see 

 in Service-trees and Dogwood, or as we may see in 

 most Vmbellif'ercB and in the Elder, this massing to- 

 gether of small blossoms individually inconspicuous 

 is a method by which Nature frequently obtains 

 that conspicuousness which is desirable to attract 

 cross-pollinating insects. In the Guelder-rose, how- 

 ever, this object is still more completely attained by 

 an additional adaptation unique among British trees. 

 The outer blossoms of each cluster have their 

 white corollas nearly an inch across, or four times the 

 size of the inner ones. " But," says Aristotle, " Nature 

 cannot distribute excess simultaneously in many 



