Chapter II 
Why are sun¬ 
flowers yellow? 
FRIENDS AND ENEMIES 
W E ENJOY the brilliant colors of many 
flowers, but the plant is not trying to 
attract us when it puts on its golden petals. It 
is attracting the bees and wasps who have an 
eye for color also. The sunflower is anxious 
for the bees and wasps to see it and to visit it, 
for unless they do, it may never have any seeds. 
Every plant has three objects in life: to live, 
to grow, and to produce other plants like itself 
to carry on its life when this plant has died. 
Most of our common plants accomplish this 
third object by means of seeds. You all know 
the hard, dry seeds which we plant in the 
garden, but perhaps you have not paid so much 
attention to the young seeds. The seeds are 
born in the flowers. If you pull the center of 
a sunflower early in the summer, you will see 
26 
