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Like the hobble-bush, this one produces
an outer circle of showy, neutral flowers, as advertisements, on
its peduncled, flat cluster; and small, perfect ones, to
reproduce the species, in June or July. As the flies and small
pollen-collecting bees move rapidly over a corymb to feast on the
layer of nectar freely exposed for their benefit, they usually
cross-fertilize the flowers; for, as Muller pointed out, the
anthers and stigmas of each come in contact with different parts
of the insect's feet or tongue. Beetles, which visit the clusters
in great numbers, often prove destructive visitors. Kerner claims
that nectar is secreted in the leaves of this species, whether in
the two glands that appear at the top of the petioles or not, he
does not say. Of what possible advantage to the plant could such
an arrangement be? Plants, as well as humans, are not in business
for philanthropy.
No garden is complete - was garden ever complete? - without the
beautiful SNOWBALL BUSH, a sterile variety of this shrub, with
whose abundant balls of white flowers everyone is familiar.


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