»0 



these from their places and then can go flying away to 

 other flowers with them dangling from his foot. 



Often small bees and butterflies are unable to get free 

 from this trap and die hanging to the flower; — ^victims be- 

 cause they are not strong enough to do as the plant wishes- 

 and carry the pollen to other blossoms. 



Ants are of no value to most plants and they do steal a 

 great deal of nectar, if they can get to the flowers; most 

 plants try to prevent this by growing small hairs on the 

 stems so that it is difficult for ants to crawl up. The stem 

 of milkweed is smooth but the outer skin is so thin that 

 the ant's sharp claws break through it and he gets some of 

 the sticky, milky fluid on his feet; if he persists in climb- 

 ing, he gets so hopelessly entangled as to often cause his 

 death. 



The final effort of plants each year is to spread their 

 seed. ^Milkweed has adopted the very excellent plan of pro- 

 viding each seed with a beautiful, silky parachute so that 

 they may float away for long distances on the wind. A 

 great many of these seeds, with their parachutes closely 

 folded, are clustered in a large pod that takes the place 

 of the flower cluster until it bursts and lets loose the 

 silky-plumed seeds. 



There is another class of inhabitants of field and mea- 

 dow that I am particularly glad to mention for two rea- 

 sons: — Because their economic importance is seldom recog- 

 nized and they are ruthlessly slain at every opportunity; 

 and because of the natural, inborn horror that is needless- 

 ly experienced by nearly every one at the sight of 



