Not to be hung above mirror and picture frames in farmhouse
parlors, as we have been wont to think, do the brilliant clusters
of orange-red wax-work berries attract the eye, where they
brighten old walls, copses, and fence rows in autumn; but to
advertise their charming wares to hungry migrating birds, which
will drop the seeds concealed within the red berry perhaps a
thousand miles away, and so plant new colonies. On the smaller,
less specialized bees and flies the vine depends in June to carry
pollen from its staminate flowers to the fertile ones, whose
thick, erect pistil would wither without fruiting without their
help.
But the best laid plans of other creatures than mice and men
"gang aft a-gley." What mean the little cottony tufts all along
the stems of so very many bittersweet vines, but that these have
foes as well as friends? Curious little parasitic tree-hoppers
(Membracis binotata), which spend their entire lives on the
stems, sucking the juices through their little beaks, just as the
aphids moor themselves to the tender rose-twigs, might be
mistaken for thorns during one of their protective masquerades.
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