HA RD WICKE' S SCIENCE- G OS SIP. 



35 



If the above should prove to be the correct solu- 

 tion, as I anticipate future research will show, it will 

 be a very interesting point indeed in connection with 

 the economy of these curious creatures. These 

 insects, it should be remarked, require very little 

 water wherein to dwell and undergo their meta- 

 morphoses. 



An Afternoon among the Demoiselles and 

 Agrions. 



Among the many pleasant expeditions which I 

 have undertaken in quest of dragon-flies, should be 

 included one to Wixford, in Warwickshire, early in 

 June 1891. 



Leaving New Street Station, Birmingham, by 

 train, just after two o'clock, I arrived at my desti- 

 nation, the little rural village of Wixford, punctually 

 at half-past three. I had not far to go after getting 

 Out, for scarcely more than a minute's walk brought 

 me to the river Arrow (a pretty tributary of the 

 Avon), in the immediate vicinity of which I com- 

 menced operations at once. 



Close to the bridge were a quantity of rushes and 

 other aquatic plants, amongst which I soon saw a 

 number of dragon-flies flying. The weather was 

 remarkably fine, although rather windy, so that these 

 beautiful insects, although exceedingly plentiful, were 

 rather difficult to capture. I managed, however, in 

 about half-an-hour's time, to secure a good series of 

 the local Platycnemis pennipes, which was here in 

 greater profusion than I had ever before met with 

 it. In company with it were numerous examples of 

 Pyrrhosoma minium, Agrion puella, and Ischnttra 

 elegans, several specimens of each of which I took for 

 distribution among correspondents. 



Proceeding to the other side of the river over the 

 bridge, I went for some distance through flowery 

 fields, as yet untouched by the scythe. Here I met 

 with the beautiful blue-barred Demoiselle (Calopteryx 

 splendens) in great abundance ; frequently half-a-dozen 

 specimens, or more, could be seen flying all at once, 

 and they presented a most pretty picture, with the 

 sun shining upon their iridescent wings. They were 

 particularly plentiful in a certain meadow by the river- 

 side, where also a number of butterflies and day- 

 flying moths were besporting themselves amid fragrant 

 flowers, which abounded in every direction. 



I may remark that I succeeded in taking a splendid 

 series of specimens of these beautiful dragon-flies, 

 which never fail to call forth a profusion of praise by 

 all who come to view my collection. 



After partaking of tea at a little old-fashioned straw- 

 thatched cottage, I had a most pleasant walk through 

 charming fields to Broom, thence onto Salford Priors, 

 by the side of the river all the way. 



Arriving at Salford at about 8 p.m., I had rather 

 an unpleasant adventure with a bull, which chased 

 me through a field near the junction of the river 



Arrow and the Avon ; but I sought a safe retreat in 

 the churchyard close by, behind the palings of which 

 I pelted the infuriated beast with pebbles. I made 

 my way afterwards to the railway station, from an 

 exit on the opposite side of the cemetery, arriving 

 home at about 11 o'clock, tired in body but consider- 

 ably refreshed in mind, after my half day's dragon- 

 fly hunt. 



{To be ccmtimced.) 



ON NECTARIES. 

 By M.D. (Hawkshead, Ambleside). 



OF all the various means employed by flowers to 

 attract their insect friends, whether it be the 

 brilliance of their colours, their size or singular shapes, 

 the exhalation of sweet scents or peculiar odours, 

 the massing of themselves, when singly insignificant 

 into umbels, or heads, or racemes, in order to be 

 more conspicuous by day, or arraying themselves in 

 shining white, that they may be more easily seen by 

 night, we can imagine nothing more likely to secure 

 a host of eager visitants, than stores of honey, where- 

 with to reward them for services rendered. Some 

 insects, it is true, are satisfied with pollen, a nitro- 

 genous and highly nutritive food for such as they, 

 and it is on the abundant supply of this commodity 

 that many flowers depend, but by far the greater 

 number offer something still more inviting, which we 

 call nectar, after the ambrosial food of the gods on 

 Mount Olympus ! Plants have their various organs 

 set- apart ;for the performance of special functions; 

 the root, the stem, the leaves have each their own 

 important part to play, and when we come to the 

 floral organs we find a similar division of labour, one 

 set being told off to protect the rest when in bud, 

 and perhaps to continue the same kind office to the 

 fruit, another has to be just as bright and pretty as 

 possible, and then we have what are called the 

 essential organs, stamens and pistils, without whose 

 mutual action neither fruit nor seed could be per- 

 fected. 



Amongst the earliest flowers, if we accept the 

 theory of evolutionary botanists, there existed no 

 special receptacle or organ for producing honey, such 

 as we call a nectary, nor perhaps was it needed, for 

 why accumulate what might equally well be distilled 

 hour by hour to meet the varying necessity, as 

 is probably still done by umbellifers and similar 

 flowers that expose their honey on a flat surface, free 

 to all who choose to take it ? But in the gradual 

 progress of changes, by means of which flowers and 

 insects were mutually adapted to each other, the 

 advantages of more deeply placed honey became, so 

 to speak, apparent, and methods were devised for 

 ensuring it, some flowers adopting one device, some 

 another, and the variety of these devices is most 

 interesting to trace. We naturally look to the flower 



