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... Lepidoptera, by the
thinness, sometimes by the length, of their tongues, were able to
produce special modifications. Through their agency were
developed flowers with long and narrow tubes, whose colors and
time of opening were in relation to the tastes and habits of
their visitors." - Hermann Muller.
"Of all colors, white is the prevailing one; and of white flowers
a considerably larger proportion smell sweetly than of any other
color, namely, 14.6 per cent; of red only 8.2 per cent are
odoriferous. The fact of a large proportion of white flowers
smelling sweetly may depend in part on those which are fertilized
by moths requiring the double aid of conspicuousness in the dusk
and of odor. So great is the economy of Nature, that most flowers
which are fertilized by crepuscular or nocturnal insects emit
their odor chiefly or exclusively in the evening." - Charles
Darwin.

WATER-PLANTAIN
(Alisma Plantago-aquatica) Water-plantain family
Flowers - Very small and numerous, white, or pale pink, whorled
in bracted clusters forming a large, loose panicle 6 to 15 in.


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