A HOMELY WEED 



3i 



conditions are to be 

 found on this cluster. 



A small wasp is now 

 seen hoverinsf about the 

 flowers, and we must 

 turn our attention to 

 him as seen in Figs, i, 

 2, and 3. The insect 

 aHghts, we will assume, 

 on a blossom of the second day 

 (Fig. i), clinging with all his 

 feet, and thrusting his tongue 

 into the beads of nectar shown 

 at A' and B'. He now brings his breast or 

 thorax, or perhaps the underside of his head,, 

 against the pollen, and is thoroughly dusted with 

 it. Leaving the blossom, we see him in flight, as 

 at Fig. 2, and very soon he is seen to come to a. 

 freshly opened flower, which he sips as be- 

 '^^ fore. The pollen is thus pushed against 



the projecting stigma, as. 

 shown at Fig. 3, and 



thus, one by one, the 

 flowers are cross-fer- 

 tilized. 



The stigma, after re- 

 ceiving pollen, imme- 

 diately bends down- 

 ward and backward,, 



