carried to other flowers, which might thus be expected
to inherit from the paternal side the tendency to the _longer_ nectary.
The tendency towards the perpetuation of the short nectary is therefore
stopped, while that of the longer nectary is insured.

_THE MILKWEED_

The singular hospitality of our milkweed blossom is nowhere matched
among Flora's minions, and would seem occasionally in need of
supervision.

Just outside the door here at my country studio, almost in touch of its
threshold, year after year there blooms a large clump of milkweed
(_Asclepias cornuta_), and, what with the fragrance of its purple
pompons and the murmurous music of its bees, its fortnight of bloom is
not permitted to be forgotten for a moment. Only a moment ago a whiff of
more than usual redolence from the open window at which I am sitting
reminded me that the flowers were even now in the heyday of their prime,
and the loud droning music betokened that the bees were making the most
of their opportunities.

Yielding to the temptation, I was soon standing in the midst of the
plants. The purple fragrant umbels of bloom hung close about me on all
sides, each flower, with its five generous horns of plenty, drained
over and over again by the eager sipping swarm.

But the July sun is one thing to a bee and quite another thing to me. I
have lingered long enough, however, to witness again the beautiful
reciprocity, and to realize anew, with awe and reverence, how divinely
well the milkweed and the bee understand each other. After a brief
search among the blossom clusters I return to my seclusion with a few
interesting specimens, which may serve as a text here at my desk by the
open window.

Two months hence an occasional silky messenger will float away from the
glistening clouds about the open milkweed pods, but who ever thanks the
bees of June for them? The flower is but a bright anticipation--an
expression of hope in the being of the parent plant. It has but one
mission. All its fragrance, all its nectar, all its beauty of form and
hue are but means towards the consummation of the eternal edict of
creation--"Increase and multiply." To that end we owe all the infinite
forms, designs, tints, decorations, perfumes, mechanisms, and other
seemingly inexplicable attributes. Its threshold must bear its own
peculiar welcome to its insect, or perhaps to its humming-bird friend,
or counterpart; its nectaries must both tempt and reward his co