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) (20197920700)

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 pointed affair, which never even peeps beyond its calyx. Unpretentious as it seems, it produces a pod that is literally packed with seeds. It matures in the late summer and autumn. These seed packets are among the finest sharp- ^^ shooters of the autumn jt^'ln a ^ woods, often pinching out their pear-shaped seeds a distance of ten feet upon the dried leaves. Cleistogamous flow- ers are an economical provision, as they pro- duce many seeds at small cost to the plant. They doubtless prove of great value, too, THE violet's blind FLOWER where there are few insects or where other conditions exist unfavor- able to frequent cross-fertilization. The ginseng, the polygala, and some other plants hide their cleistogamous flowers below ground. The fact that these self-fertilized flowers are always found on plants bearing also cross-fertilized blos- soms goes to prove that Nature never leaves a
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