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Personality of plants

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PERSONALITY OF PLANTS<br />

buzzer ; some flowers depend upon him entirely<br />

in their efforts to propagate the species.<br />

The Bees and their relatives are particularly<br />

welcome to the flowers because they do the work<br />

<strong>of</strong> fertilization so well. Wingless Insects are<br />

undesirable because they <strong>of</strong>fer little guarantee<br />

that they will successfully carry pollen to some<br />

other flower <strong>of</strong> the same species. Even if it<br />

is not brushed <strong>of</strong>f in the course <strong>of</strong> their laborious<br />

travels, they are not at all particular what<br />

kind <strong>of</strong> flowers they visit and so <strong>of</strong>fer small hope<br />

<strong>of</strong> carrying pollen to its correct destination.<br />

Flying insects <strong>of</strong> the Bee family seem to have<br />

the work <strong>of</strong> cross-fertilization directly as-<br />

signed to them. On each <strong>of</strong> their separate, pol-<br />

len-gathering journeys, they are partial to one<br />

particular kind <strong>of</strong> flower. As they flit from<br />

blossom to blossom <strong>of</strong> the same species, going<br />

in and out <strong>of</strong> flower and flower, rubbing against<br />

a group <strong>of</strong> stamens here and brushing against a<br />

pistil there, they fertilize plant after plant in<br />

grateful acknowledgment <strong>of</strong> the store <strong>of</strong> sweets<br />

they are collecting.<br />

Many and ingenious are the methods which<br />

flowers adopt to make sure that only invited<br />

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