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CHILDREN'S GARDENS 
VI 
flowers, nature has arranged special attractions 
to bring the insects to them. In the first 
place, there is the bright colour of the flowers 
to draw their attention, then their sweet scent, 
and also the honey to be got from them. Long 
ago botanists did not understand how essential 
insects were to plants, and, knowing that every¬ 
thing in nature is designed for some special use, 
they were at a loss to account for the presence 
of honey in some flowers and not in others ; 
but by careful study it has been proved that 
it is chiefly in flowers where insects are wanted 
that honey is found ; so the busy bee not only 
provides his own winter store by his summer 
visits to flowers, but helps to form the seeds to 
grow for the next year. Some flowers are 
visited by insects which fly about at night, and 
they are usually not bright or dark-coloured, 
but white or pale, as the evening primrose, or 
the flowers are not attractive, but the scent is 
very strong, as in the night-scented stock. The 
honey is not always in exactly the same place 
in the flower. It is formed in what is called 
a small gland, sometimes at the base of the 
petal, as in a buttercup, sometimes at the end 
of the stamens, as in a wallflower, near the end 
of the pedicel or small stem that supports the 
flower in a scarlet geranium, or in some other 
part of a flower to which the insect finds its 
