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When little bees alight -
and these are the truest benefactors, however frequently larger
bees, wasps, flies, and even the almost useless butterflies come
around - their feet slip about within the low crown to find a
secure lodging. As they rise to fly away after sucking, the
pollen masses which have attached themselves to the hairs on the
lower part of their legs are drawn out, to be transferred to
other blossoms, perhaps today, perhaps not for a fortnight.
Annoying as they may be, it is very rarely, indeed, that an
insect can rid itself of the pollen masses carried from either
orchids or milkweeds, except by the method Nature intended; and
it is not until the long-suffering bee is outrageously loaded
that he attains his greatest usefulness to milkweed blossoms. "Of
ninety-two specimens bearing corpuscula of Asclepias
verticillata," says Professor Robertson, "eighty-eight have them
on hairs alone, and four on the hairs and claws." And again: "As
far as the mere application of pollen to an insect is concerned,
a flower with loose pollen has the advantage.


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