VII 
THE MORNING-GLORY AND THE ANT 
I SN’T IT ODD that the morning-glory, which seems so 
innocent in its early blooming, really comes out at 
the time of day it does in order to escape enemies that 
might otherwise destroy it! 
The ant tribe is the enemy of the morning-glory. That 
flower has nectar at the bottom of its cup, and ants are 
nectar-eaters. If the morning-glory were to bloom at 
noon, the ants would scramble into its blossom and gobble 
up this nectar. In the early hours, however, when the 
dew is on the grass, the ants are not at work in the open. 
So the morning-glory does its blooming then and puts up 
its shutters by the time its enemy is abroad. 
The morning-glory keeps its nectar for its invited 
guests, the bees. It wants them to come visiting, for they 
are helpful to it. As a matter of fact, its very life depends 
on their calls. 
The fuzzy head of the bee gets all covered with pollen 
as it goes from one morning-glory cup to another for its 
nectar. It carries some of this pollen from one flower to 
another and shakes it off. This fertilizes each flower, and 
the flower makes seed. It could not do so if the pollen 
were not carried from one flower to the other. 
The ant, on the contrary, has no fuzzy head. It can¬ 
not carry pollen from flower to flower as the flying insects 
do. All it wants is to get its bag full of honey and go back 
home. Knowing this, the morning-glory opens its bloom 
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