Zunaed ebooks

Possibly the cockle grew in Southern
Asia in Job's time : today its range is north.
Like many another immigrant to our hospitable shores, this
vigorous invader shows a tendency to outstrip native blossoms in
life's race. Having won in the struggle for survival in the old
country, where the contest has been most fiercely waged for
centuries, it finds life here easy, enjoyable. What are its
methods for insuring an abundance of fertile seed? We see that
the tube of the flower is so nearly closed by the stamens and
five-styled pistil as to be adapted only to the long, slender
tongues of moths and butterflies, for which benefactors it became
narrow and deep to reserve the nectar. "A certain night-flying
moth (one of the Dianthaecia) fertilizes flowers of this genus
exclusively, and its larvae feed on their unripe seeds as a
staple. Bees and some long-tongued flies seen about the corn
cockle doubtless get pollen only; but there are few flowers so
deep that the longest-tongued bees cannot sip them.


Pages:
209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233