Blossom hosts and insect guests; how the heath family, the bluets, the figworts, the orchids and similar wild flowers welcome the bee, the fly, the wasp, the moth and other faithful insects (1901) (19765279843)

Title: Blossom hosts and insect guests; how the heath family, the bluets, the figworts, the orchids and similar wild flowers welcome the bee, the fly, the wasp, the moth and other faithful insects
Identifier: blossomhostsinse00gibs (find matches)
Year: 1901 (1900s)
Authors: Gibson, W. Hamilton (William Hamilton), 1850-1896; Davie, Eleanor E
Subjects: Fertilization of plants
Publisher: New York, Newson
Contributing Library: NCSU Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: NCSU Libraries



Text Appearing Before Image:
blossom Hosts and Insect Guests
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Fig. the anther, which his. thorax has now encountered. A strange etiquette this of the cypripedium, which speeds its parting guest with a sticky plaster smeared all over its back. As the insect works its way beneath the viscid contact, the anther is seen to be drawn out- 1^^ ward upon its '^-U hinge, and its yel- \:X\ lo^^' contents are spread upon the insect's back (Fig. 5), verily like a plaster. Catching our bee before he has a chance to escape with his generous floral compliments, we unceremoniously introduce him into another cypri- pedium blossom, to which, if he were more oblig- ing, he would naturally fly. He loses no time in profiting by his past experience, and is quickly creeping the gauntlet, as it were, or braving the needle's eye of this narrow passage. His pollen- smeared back is soon crowding beneath the overhanging stigma again, whose forward-pointed papillae scrape off a portion of it (Fig. 4), thus insuring the cross-fertilising of the flower, the bee receiving a fresh effusion of cypripedium 164