heir own account, and
without ever knowing it. The buttress of the larkspur has sprung forth
in response to the pressure of one bee's weight after another, and many
a like structure has had the very same origin,--or shall we say,
provocation? In these and in other examples unnumbered, culminating in
the marvellous orchids and their ministers, there has come about the
closest adaptation of flower-shape to insect-form, the one now clearly
the counterpart of the other.

We must not forget that the hospitality of a flower is after all the
hospitality of an inn-keeper who earns and requires payment. Vexed as
flowers are apt to be by intruders that consume their stores without
requital, no wonder that they present so ample an array of repulsion and
defence. Best of all is such a resource as that of the red clover, which
hides its honey at the bottom of a tube so deep that only a friendly
bumblebee can sip it. Less effective, but well worth a moment's
examination, are the methods by which leaves are opposed as fences for
the discouragement of thieves. Here, in a Bellwort, is a perfoliate leaf
that encircles the stem upon which it grows; and there in a Honeysuckle
is a connate leaf on much the same plan, formed of two leaves, stiff and
strong, soldered at their bases. Sometimes the pillager meets prickles
that sting him, as in the roses and briers; and if he is a little fellow
he is sure to regard him with intense disgust, a bristly guard of wiry
hair--hence the commonness of that kind of fortification. Against
enemies of larger growth a tree or shrub will often aim sharp
thorns--another piece of masquerade, for thorns are but branches checked
in growth, and frowning with a barb in token of disappointment at not
being able to smile in a blossom. In every jot and tittle of barb and
prickle, of the glossiness which disheartens or the gumminess which
ensnares, we may be sure that equally with all the lures of hue, form
and scent, nothing, however trifling it may seem, is as we find it,
except through usefulness long tested and approved. In flowers, much
that at first glance looks like idle decoration, on closer scrutiny
reveals itself as service in disguise. In penetrating these disguises
and many more of other phases, the student of flowers delights to busy
himself. He loves, too, to detect the cousinship of plants through all
the change of dress and habit due to their rearing under widely
different skies and nurture, to their be