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MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

WILLIAM HAMILTON GIBSON

ILLUSTRATED BY THE AUTHOR

a UBR£St

NEW YORK AND LONDON

HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS

1904

v ■• -

A Familiar Guest J

The Cuckoos and the Outwitted Cow-bird 23

Door-step Neighbors jy

A Queer Little Family on the Bittersweet 8j

The Welcomes of the Flowers „ . . 103

A Honey-deiv Picnic '. . iji

A Few Natwe Orchids and Their Insect Sponsors . . IJI

The Milkweed 227

Index 239

Page

William Hamilton Gibson Frontispiece

Initial. The Studio Door 3

The Rose-bush Episode 9

A Comer of My Table I2

An Animated Brush f4

A Specimen in Three Stages J6

The Studio Table iS

Initial 23

The European Cuckoo •?•/

The Yellow-billed Cuckoo 26

Browsing Kine 29

A Greedy Foster-child 34

The Yellow Warbler 44

A Blighted Home 46

The Normal Nest of the Yellow Warbler 47

The Yellow Warbler at Home 49

A Suspicious Nest of the Yellow Warbler jo

The Nest Separated 52

Initial 57

The Door-step Arena, with its Pitfalls 60

fishing for Tigers , , . . , 6j

viii LIST OF DESIGNS

Page

Tiger-beetle 68

The Spider Victim. 70

Filling the Spider's Grave 71

Black Digger-wasp yj

Black Digger-was^ and His Victim, Showing the Egg of

the Wasp Attached /j

Protecting Hie Burrow while Searching for Prey .... ycj

The " Cow-spit " Mystery Disclosed Si

The Tiger's Head, from the Victim's Stand-point . ... 84

Initial. Branch of the Bittersweet S7

A Bittersweet Covey go

Flushing the Game g?

Specimen Twig qj

Building Froth-tent 100

Butterflies and Flowers . . : /oj

A Row of Stamens 106

The Tarts of a Flower iog

Historical Series. Showing the Progress of Discovery of

Flower Fertilization no

The Garden Sage 120

Cross-fertilization of the Sage 121

Elastic Stamens. Anthers Inserted in their Pockets . . . 124.

Elastic Stamens of Mountain-laurel 125

Andromeda Ligustrina 127

Fertilization of Andromeda 128

7 he Laurel jjo

Cross-fertilization of the Blue-fag tji

Blue-flag '. ij2

Pogonia and Devil' s-bit /jj

Devil's-bit /jj

Horse-balm. Collinsonia ijj

Cross-fertilization of the Horse-balm — Flowers in Various

Stages, and in the Order of their Visitation by the Bee Ij6

The Cone-flower jjy

LIST OF DESIGNS IX

Page

Cone -flower, Showing Numerous Florets, Some in Pollen,

Others in Stigmatic Stage 139

Cross-fertilization of Cone-flower 140

The Fertilization of the English Arum. 1st Stage . . . 141
The Fertilization of the English Arum. 2d, 3d, 4th, and

5th Stages 142

Pogonia T45

Cross-fertilization J4^>

A Pine Branch '5X

Initial 151

The Picnic *59

Tail-piece 167

Habenaria Orbiculata 171

Arethusa Bulbosa 177

The Botanical Distribution of an Ordinary Flower and of

the Orchid 182

The " Column " in Various Orchids 1S3

The Result of the Bee's Visit 1S4

Cross-fertilization of Arethusa 188

Habenaria Orbiculata. A Single Flower Enlarged . . . 190

Orchis Spectabilis 191

Cross-fertilization of H. Orbiculata {Sphinx-moth) . . . 193

The Flower and Column of Orchis Spectabilis, Enlarged . 193

Orchis Spectabilis 195

Position of Pollen of Orchis Spectabilis Withdrawn on

Pencil 197

The Cross-fertilization of Orchis Spectabilis 197

The Purple-fringed Orchid . . 199

The Ragged Orchid {Front Sec/ion) 200

The Ragged Orchid {Profile Section) 202

The Ragged Orchid {H. Lacera) and the Butterfly's Tongue.

Cross-fertilization 203

The Yellow Orchid {H. Flava) 204

The Ragged Orchid {H. Lacera) 203

X LIST OF DESIGNS

Page

Cypripedium Acaule 207

Moccasin-flower (C. Acaule) 208

The Bee Imprisoned in the Lips of Cypripedium .... 210

Moccasin-flower. Bee Sipping Nectar 211

The Bee Passing Beneath the Stigma 213

A Bee Receiving Pollen-plaster on His Thorax .... 214

Rattlesnake- Plantain— the Young and the Old 213

Cross- fertilization of the Rattlesnake-Plantain. Side Sec-
tions 216

Cross- fertilization of the Rattlesnake - Plantain. Front

Vinv i>/7

The Tongue of a Bumblebee 21S

Goodyera, or Periamium Pubescens 221

Milkweed Captives 231

The Pollen Masses and the Fissure 232

The Tragedy of the Bees 233

A Moth Caught by the Tongue in Dogbane 237

A FAMILIAR GUEST

mum

ii ^v-

MSvmiliat Sued

FOLITUDE! Where under trees and
sky shall you find it ? The more
solitary the recluse and the more confirmed and
grounded his seclusion, the wider and more fa-
miliar becomes the circle of his social environ-
ment, until at length, like a very dryad of old,

4 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

the birds build and sing in his branches and
the " wee wild beasties " nest in his pockets. If
he fails to be aware of the fact, more's the pity.
His desolation is within, not without, in spite of,
not because of, his surroundings.

Here in my country studio — not a hermitage,
'tis true, but secluded among trees, some distance
isolated from my own home and out of sight of
any other — what company ! What occasional " tu-
multuous privacy" is mine! I have frequently
been obliged to step out upon the porch and re-
quest a modulation of hilarity and a more cour-
teous respect for my hospitality. But this is
evidently entirely a matter of point of view,
and, judging from the effects of my protests at
such times, my assumed superior air of conde-
scension is apparently construed as a huge joke.
If the resultant rejoinder of wild volapuk and
expressive pantomime has any significance, it is
plain that I am desired to understand that my
exact status is that of a squatter on contested
territory.

There are those snickering squirrels, for in-
stance ! At this moment two of them are having
a rollicking game of tag on the shingled roof — a
pandemonium of scrambling, scratching, squeal-
ing, and growling — ever and anon clambering

A FAMILIAR GUEST 5

down at the eaves to the top of a blind and peep-
ing in at the window to see how I like it.

A woodchuck is perambulating my porch — he
was a moment ago — presumably in renewed quest
of that favorite pabulum more delectable than
rowen clover, the splintered cribbings from the
legs of a certain pine bench, which, up to date, he
has lowered about three inches — a process in
which he has considered average rather than
symmetry, or the comfort of the too trusting vis-
itor who happens to be unaware of his carpentry.

The drone of bees and the carol of birds are
naturally an incessant accompaniment to my toil
— at least, in these spring and summer months.
The tall, straight flue of the chimney, like the
deep diapason of an organ, is softly murmurous
with the flurry of the swifts in their afternoon or
vesper flight. There is a robin's nest close by
one window, a vireo's nest on a forked dogwood
within touch of the porch, and continual remind-
ers of similar snuggeries of indigo-bird, chat, and
oriole within close limits, to say nothing of an
ants' nest not far off, whose proximity is soon
manifest as you sit in the grass— and immediate-
ly get up again.

Fancy a wild fox for a daily entertainment!
For several days in succession last year I spent a

6 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

half-hour observing his frisky gambols on the hill-
side across the dingle below my porch, as he
jumped apparently for mice in the sloping rowen-
field. How quickly he responded to my slightest
interruption of voice or footfall, running to the
cover of the alders !

The little red-headed chippy, the most familiar
and sociable of our birds, of course pays me his
frequent visit, hopping in at the door and picking
up I don't know what upon the floor. A barn-
swallow occasionally darts in through the open
window and out again at the door, as though for
very sport, only a few days since skimming be-
neath my nose, while its wings fairly tipped the
pen with which I was writing. The chipmonk
has Ions: made himself at home, and his scratch-
ing footsteps on my door -sill, or even in my
closet, is a not uncommon episode. Now and
then through the day I hear a soft pat-pat on the
hard-wood floor, at intervals of a few seconds, and
realize that my pet toad, which has voluntarily
taken up its abode in an old bowl on the closet-
floor, is taking; his afternoon outing, and with his
always seemingly inconsistent lightning tongue is
picking up his casual flies at three inches sight
around the base-board.

A mouse, I see, has heaped a neat little pile of

A FAMILIAR GUEST 7

seeds upon the top of the wainscot near by —
cherry pits, polygonum, and ragweed seeds, and
others, including some small oak-galls, which I
find have been abstracted from a box of speci-
mens which I had stored in the closet for safe-
keeping. I wonder if it is the same little fellow
that built its nest in an old shoe in the same
closet last year, and, among other mischief, re-
moved the white grub in a similar lot of speci-
men galls which I also missed, and subsequently
found in the shoe and scattered on the closet
floor?

I have mentioned the murmur of the bees, but
the incessant buzzing of flies and wasps is an
equally prominent sound. Then there is the oc-
casional sortie of the dragon-fly, making his
gauzy, skimming circuit about the room, or sug-
gestively bobbing around against wall or ceiling;
and that occasional audible episode of the stifled,
expiring buzz of a fly, which is too plainly in the
toils of Arachne up yonder! For in one corner
of my room I boast of a prize dusty " cobweb," as
yet spared from the household broom, a gossamer
arena of two years' standing, which makes a
dense span of a length of about two feet from a
clump of dried hydrangea blossoms to the sill of
a transom - window, and which, of course, some-

8 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

where in its dusty spread, tapers off into a dark
tunnel, where lurks the eight-eyed schemer, " o'er-
lookinor all his waving snares around."

Sooner or later, it would seem, every too con-
stant buzzing visitor encroaches on its domain,
and is drawn to its silken vortex, and is eventual-
ly shed below as a clean dried specimen ; for this
is an agalena spider, which dispenses with the
winding-sheet of the field species — epeira and
argiope. Last week a big bumble-bee -like fly-
paid me a visit and suddenly disappeared. To-
day I find him dried and ready for the insect-pin
and the cabinet on the window-sill beneath the
web, which affords at all times its liberal ento-
mological assortment — Coleoptera, Hymenoptera,
Diptera, and Lepidoptera. Many are the rare
specimens which I have picked from these char-
nel remnants of my spider net.

Ah, hark! The talking "robber-fly" (Asi/us),
with his nasal, twangy buzz ! "Waioiv! Wha-a-ar
are ye?" he seems to say, and with a suggestive
onslaught against the window-pane, which beto-
kens his satisfied quest, is out again at the win-
dow with a bluebottle-fly in the clutch of his pow-
erful legs, or perhaps impaled on his horny beak.

Solitude ! Not here. Amid such continual
distraction and entertainment concentration on

A FAMILIAR GUEST 9

the immediate task in hand is not always of easy
accomplishment.

Last week, after a somewhat distracted morn-
ing with some queer beguiling little harlequins on
the bittersweet-vine about my porch, of which I
have previously writ-
ten, I had finally set-
tled down to my work, ^fosffi^™

w ?

'/:--' -

and was engaged in ':~^/j^%

&) S>.

V?fS^^^^- putting the fin-

|) (jjf ishing touches

upon a long-de-
layed drawing, when a new
visitor claimed my attention
— a small hornet, which
alights upon the window-
sill within half a yard from my face. To be sure,
she was no stranger here at my studio — even now
there are two of her yonder beneath the spider-
nest — and was, moreover, an old friend, whose
ways were perfectly familiar to me; but this time
the insect engaged my particular attention be-

IO MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

cause it was not alone, being accompanied by a
green caterpillar bigger than herself, which she
held beneath her body as she travelled along on
the window-sill so near my face. "So, so! my
little wren - wasp, you have found a satisfactory
cranny at last, and have made yourself at home.
I have seen you prying about here for a week
and wondered where you would take up your
abode."

The insect now reaches the edge of the sill,
and, taking a fresh grip on her burden, starts off
in a bee-line across my drawing-board and tow-
ards the open door, and disappears. Wondering
what her whimsical destination might be, my eye
involuntarily began to wander about the room in
quest of nail-holes or other available similar cran-
nies, but without reward, and I had fairly settled
back to my work and forgotten the incident, when
the same visitor, or another just like her, again
appeared, this time clearing the window-sill in her
flight, and landing directly upon my drawing-
board, across which she sped, half creeping, half
in flight, and tugging her green caterpillar as be-
fore— longer than herself — which she held be-
neath her body.

"This time I shall learn your secret," I thought.
" Two such challenges as this are not to be ig-

A FAMILIAR GUEST U

nored." So I concluded this time to observe
her progress carefully. In a moment she had
reached the right-hand edge of my easel -board,
from which she made a short flight, and settled
upon a large table in the centre of the room, lit-
tered with its characteristic chaos of profession-
al paraphernalia— brushes, paints, dishes, bottles,
color-boxes, and cloths — among which she disap-
peared. It was a hopeless task to disclose her, so
I waited patiently to observe the spot from which
she would emerge, assuming that this, like the
window-sill and my easel, was a mere way-station
on her homeward travels. But she failed to ap-
pear, while I busied my wits in trying to recall
which particular item in the collection had a hole
in it. Yes, there was a spool among other odds
and ends in a Japanese boat-basket. That must
be it I But on examination the paper still cov-
ered both ends, and I was again at a loss. What,
then, can be the attraction on my table? My
wondering curiosity was immediately satisfied, for
as I turned back to the board and resumed my
work I soon discovered another wasp, with its
caterpillar freight, on the drawing-board. After
a moment's pause she made a quiet short flight
towards the table, and what was my astonishment
to observe her alight directly upon the tip of the

12 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

very brush which I held in my hand, which, I
now noted for the first time, had a hole in its

•v*e. .

end ! In another moment she disappeared within
the cavity, tugging the caterpillar after her!

My bamboo brushes ! I had not thought of

A FAMILIAR GUEST I 3

them ! By mere chance a few years since I hap-
pened upon some of these bamboo brushes in a
Japanese shop — large, long-handled brushes, with
pure white hair nicely stiffened to a tapering
point, which was neatly protected with a sheath-
ing cover of bamboo. A number of them were
at my elbow, a few inches distant, in a glass of
water, and on the table by the vase beyond were a
dozen or so in a scattered bundle.

Normally each of these brushes is closed at the
end by the natural pith of the bamboo. I now
find them all either open or otherwise tampered
with, and the surrounding surface of the table lit-
tered with tiny balls, apparently of sawdust. I
picked up one of the nearest brushes, and upon
inverting it and giving it a slight tap, a tiny green
worm fell out of the opening. From the next
one I managed to shake out seven of the caterpil-
lars, while the third had passed beyond this stage,
the aperture having been carefully plugged with a
mud cork, which was even now moist. Two or
three others were in the same plugged condition,
and investigation showed that no single brush
had escaped similar tampering to a greater or less
extent. One brush had apparently not given en-
tire satisfaction, for the plug had been removed,
and the caterpillars, eight or ten in number, were

14 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

scattered about the opening. But the dissatisfac-
tion probably lay with one of these caterpillars
rather than with the maternal wasp, who had ap-
parently failed in the full dose of anaesthetic, for

one of her victims
which I observed
was quite lively,
and had probably
forced out the soft
plug, and in his
squirming had
ousted his luckless
companions.

The caterpillars
were all of the
same kind, though
varying in size,
their length being
from one-half to
three - quarters of
an inch. To all appearances they were dead, but
more careful observation revealed signs of slight
vitality. Recognizing the species as one which I
had long known, from its larva to its moth, it was
not difficult to understand how my brushes might
thus have been expeditiously packed with them.
Not far from my studio door is a small thicket of

A FAMILIAR GUEST 1 5

wild rose, which should alone be sufficient to ac-
count for all those victimized caterpillars. This
species is a regular dependent on the rose, dwelling
within its cocoon-like canopy of leaves, which are
drawn together with a few silken webs, and in
which it is commonly concealed by day. A little
persuasion upon either end of its leafy case, how-
ever, soon brings the little tenant to view as he
wriggles out, backward or forward, as the case
may be, and in a twinkling, spider-like, hangs sus-
pended by a web, which never fails him even in
the most sudden emergency.

I can readily fancy the tiny hornet making a
commotion at one end of this leafy domicile and
the next instant catching the evicted caterpillar
" on a fly " at the other. Grasping her prey with
her legs and jaws, in another moment the wrig-
gling body is passive in her grasp, subdued by
the potent anaesthetic of her sting — a hypodermic
injection which instantly produces the semblance
of death in its insect victim, reducing all the vital
functions to the point of dissolution, and then
holds them suspended — literally prolongs life, it
would sometimes seem, even beyond its normal
duration— by a process which I might call ductile
equation. This chemical resource is common to
all the hornets, whether their victims be grass-

MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

hoppers, spiders, cicadae, or caterpillars. In a con-
dition of helpless stupor they are lugged off to
the respective dens provided for them, and then,
hermetically sealed on storage, are preserved as
fresh living food for the young hornet larva,
which is left in charge of them, and has a place
waiting for them all. The developments within

my brush-handles may serve as a commentary on
the ways and transformations of the average
hornet.

One after another of the little green caterpillars
is packed into the bamboo cell, which is about an
inch deep, and plugged with mud at the base.
From seven to ten of the victims are thus stored,
after which the little wasp deposits an egg among
them, and seals the doorway with a pellet of mud.
The young larva, which soon hatches from this
egg, finds itself in a land of plenty, surrounded

A FAMILIAR GUEST \J

with living food, and, being born hungry, he loses
no time in making a meal from the nearest vic-
tim. One after another of the caterpillars is de-
voured, until his larder, nicely calculated to carry
him to his full growth, is exhausted. Thus the
first stage is passed. The second stage is entered
into within a few hours, and is passed within a
silken cocoon, with which the white grub now
surrounds itself, and with which, transformed to a
pupa, it bides its time for about three weeks, as I
now recall, when — third stage — out pops the mud
cork, and the perfect wasp appears at the opening
of the cell. I have shown sections of one of my
brushes in the three stages.

This interesting little hornet is a common sum-
mer species, known as the solitary hornet — one of
them — Odynerus flavipes. The insect is about a
half- inch in length, and to the careless observer
might suggest a yellow-jacket, though the yellow
is here confined to two triangular spots on the
front of the thorax and three bands upon the ab-
domen.

Like the wren among birds, it is fond of build-
ing in holes, and will generally obtain them ready-
made if possible. Burroughs has said of the
wren that it " will build in anything that has a
hole in it, from m old boot to, a bombshell." In

MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

similar whim our little solitary hornet has been
known to faYor nail-holes, hollow reeds, straws, the
barrels of a pistol, holes in kegs, worm-holes in
wood, and spools, to which we may now add bam-
boo brushes.

Ovid declared and the ancient Greeks believed
that hornets were the direct progeny of the snort-
ing war-horse. The phrase "mad as a hornet"

A FAMILIAR GUEST 1 9

has become a proverb. Think, then, of a brush
loaded and tipped with this martial spirit of
Vespa, this cavorting afflatus, this testy animus !
There is more than one pessimistic " goose-quill,''
of course, " mightier than the sword," which, it
occurs to me in my now charitable mood, might
have been thus surreptitiously voudooed by the
war-like hornet, and the plug never removed.

THE CUCKOOS AND THE OUT-
WITTED CO IV- BIRD

Che Cuckoos

bird

HOW has that "blessed
bird" and "sweet messenger
of spring," the "cuckoo," im-
posed upon the poetic sensi-
bilities of its native land !
And what is this cuckoo which has thus be-
witched all the poets ? What is the personality
behind that " wandering voice ?" What the dis-
tinguishing trait which has made this wily at-
tendant on the spring notorious from the times of
Aristotle and Pliny? Think of "following the
cuckoo," as Losfan longed to do, in its " annual
visit around the globe," a voluntary witness and
accessory to the blighting curse of its vagrant,
almost unnatural life! No, my indiscriminate
bards; on this occasion we must part company.
I cannot "follow" your cuckoo — except with a

MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

gun, forsooth — nor welcome your "darling of the
spring," even though he were never so captivating
as a songster.

The song and the singer are here identical and

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WO?,.

CT- ©^

inseparable, to
my prosaic and
rational senses;
for does not
that "blithe new-
comer," as Ten-
nyson says, " tell his name to all the hills " —
" Cuckoo ! Cuckoo !"

The poet of romance is prompted to draw on
his imagination for his facts, but the poet of nat-
ure must first of all be true, and incidentally as
beautiful and good as may be ; and a half-truth or
a truth with a reservation may be as dangerous

THE CUCKOOS AND THE OUTWITTED COW-BlRD 25

as falsehood. The poet who should so paint the
velvety beauty of a rattlesnake as to make you
long to coddle it would hardly be considered a
safe character to be at large. Likewise an ode
to the nettle, or to the autumn splendor of the
poison -sumac, which ignored its venom would
scarcely be a wise botanical guide for indiscrimi-
nate circulation among the innocents. Think,
then, of a poetic eulogium on a bird of which the
observant Gilbert could have written :

" This proceeding of the cuckoo, of dropping its
eggs as it were by chance, is such a monstrous
outrage on maternal affection, one of the first
great dictates of nature, and such a violence on
instinct, that had it only been related of a bird in
the Brazils or Peru, it would never have merited
our belief. . . . She is hardened against her young
ones as though they were not hers. . . . ' Because
God hath deprived her of wisdom, neither hath
He imparted to her understanding.' "

America is spared the infliction of this notori-
ous " cuckoo." Its nearest congeners, our yellow-
billed and black-billed cuckoos, while suggesting
their foreign ally in shape and somewhat in song,
have mended their ways, and though it is true
they make a bad mess of it, they at least try to
build their own nest, and rear their own young

MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

with tender solicitude. The nest is usually so
sparse and flimsy an affair that you can see
through its coarse mesh of sticks from below, the
fledglings lying as on a grid-
iron or toaster ; and it is,
moreover, occasionally so <■
much higher in the

centre than
at the sides
that the chicks tumble
out of bed and perish.
Still, it is a beginning
in the right direction.
Yes, it would ap-
pear that our American cuckoo is endeavoring to
make amends for the sins of its ancestors ; but,

THE CUCKOOS AND THE OUTWITTED COW-BIRD 2J

what is less to its credit, it has apparently found a
scapegoat, to which it would ever appear anxious
to call our attention, as it stammers forth, in ac-
cents of warning, " c, c, cow, cow, cow ! cowow,
cowow!" It never gets any further than this;
but doubtless in due process of vocal evolution
we shall yet hear the "bunting," or "blackbird,"
which is evidently what he is trying to say.

Owing to the onomatopoetic quality of the
" kow, kow, kow !" of the bird, it is known in some
sections as the " kow-bird," and is thus confounded
with the real cow-bird, and gets the credit of her
mischief, even as in other parts of the country,
under the correct name of " cuckoo," it bears the
odium of its foreign relative.

For though we have no disreputable cuckoo,
ornithologically speaking, let us not congratulate
ourselves too hastily. We have his counterpart
in a black sheep of featherdom which vies with
his European rival in deeds of cunning and cru-
elty, and which has not even a song to recom-
mend him — no vocal accomplishment which by
the greatest of license could prompt a poet to
exclaim,

" I hear thee and rejoice,"

without having his sanity called in question.
The cow-blackbird, it is true, executes a certain

28 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

guttural performance with its throat — though ap-
parently emanating from a gastric source — which
some ornithologists dignify by the name of "song."
But it is safe to affirm that with this vocal re-
source alone to recommend him he or his kind
would scarcely have been known to fame. The
bird has yet another lay, however, which has
made it notorious. Where is the nest of song-
sparrow, or Maryland yellow-throat, or yellow war-
mer, or chippy, that is safe from the curse of the
jow-bird's blighting visit ?

And yet how few of us have ever seen the bird
to recognize it, unless perchance in the occasional
flock clustering about the noses and feet of brows-
ing kine and sheep, or perhaps perched upon
their backs, the glossy black plumage of the
males glistening with iridescent sheen in the
sunshine.

" Haow them blackbirds doos love the smell o'
thet caow's breath !" said an old dame to me once
in my boyhood. "I don't blame um: I like it
myself." Whether it was this same authority
who was responsible for my own similar early
impression I do not know, but I do recall
the surprise at my ultimate discovery that it
was alone the quest of insects that attracted the
birds.

30 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

Upon the first arrival of the bird in the spring
an attentive ear might detect its discordant voice,
or the chuckling note of his mischievous spouse
and accomplice, in the great bird medley; but
later her crafty instinct would seem to warn her
that silence is more to her interest in the pursuit
of her wily mission. In June, when so many an
ecstatic love-song among the birds has modulated
from accents of ardent love to those of glad fru-
ition, when the sonnet to his " mistress's eye-
brow" is shortly to give place to the lullaby, then,
like the "worm i' the bud," the cow-bird begins
her parasitical career. How many thousands are
the bird homes which are blasted in her "annual
visit?"

Stealthily and silently she pries among the
thickets, following up the trail of warbler, sparrow,
or thrush like a sleuth-hound. Yonder a tiny
yellow-bird with a jet-black cheek flits hither with
a wisp of dry grass in her beak, and disappears in
the branches of a small tree close to my studio
door. Like the shadow of fate the cow-bird sud-
denly appears, and has doubtless soon ferreted
out her cradle.

In a certain grassy bank not far from where I
am writing, at the foot of an unsuspecting fern, a
song-sparrow has built her nest. It lies in a hoi-

THE CUCKOOS AND THE OUTWITTED COW-BIRD 3 I

low among the dried leaves and grass, and is so
artfully merged with its immediate surroundings
that even though you know its precise location it
still eludes you. Only yesterday the last finish-
ing-touches were made upon the nest, and this
morning, as I might have anticipated from the
excess of lisp and twitter of the mother bird, I
find the first pretty brown-spotted egg.

Surely our cow -bird has missed this secret
haunt on her rounds. Be not deceived ! Within
a half-hour after this egg was laid the sparrow
and its mate, returning from a brief absence to
view their prize, discover two eggs where they
had been responsible for but one. The prowling
foe had already discovered their secret ; for she,
too, is " an attendant on the spring," and had been
simply biding her time. The parent birds once
out of sight, she had stolen slyly upon the nest,
and after a very brief interval as slyly retreated,
leaving her questionable compliments, presumably
with a self-satisfied chuckle. The intruded esre is
so like its fellow as to be hardly distinguishable
except in its slightly larger size. It is doubtful
whether the sparrow, in particular, owing to this
similarity, ever realizes the deception. Indeed,
the event is possibly considered a cause for self-
congratulation rather than otherwise — at least,

32 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

until her eyes are opened by the fateful denoue-
ment of a few weeks later. And thus the Ameri-
can cow-bird outcuckoos the cuckoo as an " at-
tendant on the spring," taking her pick among
the nurseries of featherdom, now victimizing the
oriole by a brief sojourn in the swinging ham-
mock in the elm, here stopping a moment to
leave her charge to the care of an indigo-bird, to-
morrow creeping through the grass to the se-
creted nest of the Maryland yellow -throat, or
Wilson's thrush, or chewink. And, unaccount-
able as it would appear, here we find the same
deadly token safely lodged in the dainty cobweb
nest of the vireo, a fragile pendent fabric hung
in the fork of a slender branch which in itself
would barely appear sufficiently strong to sus-
tain the weight of a cow-bird without emptying
the nest.

Indeed, the presence of this intruded egg, like
that of the European cuckoo in similar fragile
nests, has given rise to the popular belief that the
bird must resort to exceptional means in these in-
stances. Sir William Jardine, for instance, in an
editorial foot-note in one of Gilbert White's pages,
remarks :

" It is a curious fact, and one, I believe, not
hitherto noticed by naturalists, that the cuckoo

LIBRARY

THE CUCKOOS AND THE OUT&ITfi^Tfcc^BlfRlOJjIJG

deposits its egg in the nests of the titlark, robin,
and wagtail by means of its foot. If the bird sat
on the nest while the egg was laid, the weight of
its body would crush the nest and cause it to be
forsaken, and thus one of the ends of Providence
would be defeated. I have found the eggs of the
cuckoo in the nest of a white-throat, built in so
small a hole in a garden wall that it was ab-
solutely impossible for the cuckoo to have got
into it."

In the absence of substantiation, this, at best,
presumptive evidence is discounted by the well-
attested fact that the cuckoo has frequently been
shot in the act of carrying a cuckoo's egg in its
mouth, and there is on record an authentic ac-
count of a cuckoo which was observed through
a telescope to lay her egg on a bank, and then
take it in her bill and deposit it in the nest of a
wagtail.

There is no evidence to warrant a similar re-
source in our cow -bird, though the inference
would often appear irresistible, did we not know
that Wilson actually saw the cow-bird in the act
of laying in the diminutive nest of a red -eyed
vireo, and also in that of the bluebird.

And what is the almost certain doom of the
bird-home thus contaminated by the cow -bird?

MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

The egg is always laid betimes,
and is usually the first to hatch,
the period of incubation be-
ing a day or two less than
that of the eggs of the
foster-parent. And woe
be to the fledglings

whom fate has as-
sociated with a
young cow -bird!
He is the "early bird that
gets the worm." His is
the clamoring red mouth which
takes the provender of the en-
tire family. It is all "grist into
his mill," and everything he eats
seems to go to appetite — his bedfellows, if not
thus starved to death, beingr at length crushed
by his comparatively ponderous bulk, or ejected

THE CUCKOOS AND THE OUTWITTED COW-BIRD 35

from the nest to die. It is a pretty well es-
tablished fact that the cuckoo of Europe delib-
erately ousts its companion fledglings — a fact
first noted by the famous Dr. Jenner. And Dar-
win has even asserted that the process of ana-
tomical evolution has especially equipped the
young cuckoo for such an accomplishment — a
practice in which some accommodating philo-
sophic minds detect the act of "divine benefi-
cence," in that " the young cuckoo is thus in-
sured sufficient food, and that its foster-brothers
thus perish before they have acquired much feel-
ing."

The following account, written by an eye-wit-
ness, bears the stamp of authenticity, and is
furthermore re - enforced by a careful and most
graphic drawing made on the spot, which I here
reproduce, and fully substantiates the previous
statement by Dr. Jenner. The scene of the
tragedy was the nest of a pipit, or titlark, on the
ground beneath a heather-bush. When first dis-
covered it contained two pipit's eggs and the egg
of a cuckoo.

" At the next visit, after an interval of forty-
eight hours," writes Mrs. Blackburn, " we found
the young cuckoo alone in the nest, and both the
young pipits lying down the bank, about ten

36 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

inches from the margin of the nest, but quite live-
ly after being warmed in the hand. They were
replaced in the nest beside the cuckoo, which
struggled about till it got its back under one of
them, when it climbed backward directly up the
open side of the nest and pitched the pipit from
its back on to the edge. It then stood quite up-
right on its legs, which were straddled wide apart,
with the claws firmly fixed half-way down the in-
side of the nest, and, stretching its wings apart
and backward, it elbowed the pipit fairly over the
margin so far that its struo-^les took it down the
bank instead of back into the nest. After this
the cuckoo stood a minute or two feeling back
with its wings, as if to make sure that the pipit
was fairly overboard, and then subsided into the
bottom of the nest.

" I replaced the ejected one and went home.
On returning the next day, both nestlings were
found dead and cold out of the nest. . . . But what
struck me most was this : the cuckoo was per-
fectly naked, without a vestige of a feather, or
even a hint of future feathers ; its eyes were not
yet opened, and its neck seemed too weak to sup-
port the weight of the head. The pipit had well-
developed quills on the wings and back, and had
bright eyes, partially open, yet they seemed quite

THE CUCKOOS AND THE OUTWITTED COW-BIRD 37

helpless under the manipulations of the cuckoo,
which looked a much less developed creature.
The cuckoo's legs, however, seemed very muscu-
lar; and it appeared to feel about with its wings,
which were absolutely featherless, as with hands,
the spurious wing (unusually large in proportion)
looking like a spread-out thumb."

Considering how rarely we see the cow-bird in
our walks, her merciless ubiquity is astonishing.
It occasionally happens that almost every nest
I meet in a day's walk will show the ominous
speckled egg. In a single stroll in the country I
have removed eight of these foreboding tokens of
misery. Only last summer I discovered the nest
of a wood-sparrow in a hazel-bush, my attention
being attracted thither by the parent bird bearing
food in her beak. I found the nest occupied, ap-
propriated, monopolized, by a cow-bird fledgling —
a great, fat, clamoring lubber, completely filling
the cavity of the nest, the one diminutive, puny
remnant of the sparrow's offspring being jammed
against the side of the nest, and a skeleton of a
previous victim hanging among the branches be-
low, with doubtless others lost in the grass some-
where in the near neighborhood, where they had
been removed by the bereaved mother. The
ravenous young parasite, though not half grown,

38 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

was yet bigger by nearly double than the foster-
mother. What a monster this ! The " Black
Douglass " of the bird home ; a blot on Nature's
page !

As in previous instances, observing that the in-
terloper had a voice fully capable of making his
wants known, I gave the comfortable little beast
ample room to spread himself on the ground, and
let the lone little starveling survivor of the right-
ful brood have his cot all to himself.

And yet, as I left the spot, I confess to a cer-
tain misgiving, as the pleading chirrup of the
ousted fledgling followed me faintly and more
faintly up the hill, recalling, too, the many previ-
ous similar acts of mine— and one in particular,
when I had slaughtered in cold blood two of
these irresponsibles found in a single nest. But
sober second thought evoked a more philosophic
and conscientious mood, the outcome of which
leading, as always, to a semi -conviction that the
complex question of reconciliation of duty and
humanity in the premises was not thus easily dis-
posed of, considering, as I was bound to do, the
equal innocence of the chicks, both of which had
been placed in the nest in obedience to a natural
law, which in the case of the cow -bird was none
the less a divine institution because I failed to un-

THE CUCKOOS AND THE OUTWITTED COW-BIRD 39

derstand it. Such is the inevitable, somewhat
penitent conclusion which I always arrive at on
the cow-bird question ; and yet my next cow-bird
fledgling will doubtless follow the fate of all
its predecessors, the reminiscent qualms of con-
science finding a ready philosophy equal to the
emergency ; for if, indeed, this parasite of the
bird home be a factor in the divine plan of Nat-
ure's equilibrium, looking towards the survival of
the fittest and the regulation of the sparrow and
small-bird population, which we must admit, how
am I to know but that this righteous impulse of
the human animal is not equally a divine, as it is
certainly a natural institution looking to the lim-
itations of the cow-bird? One June morning, a
year or two ago, I heard a loud squeaking, as of a
young bird in the grass near my door, and, on ap-
proaching, discovered the spectacle of a cow-bird,
almost full-fledged, being fed by its foster-mother,
a chippy not more than half its size, and which
was obliged to stand on tiptoe to cram the gullet
of the parasite.

The victims of the cow-bird are usually, as in
this instance, birds of much smaller size, the fly-
catchers, the sparrows, warblers, and vireos, though
she occasionally imposes on larger species, such
as the orioles and the thrushes. The following

4o MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

are among its most frequent dupes, given some-
what in the order of the bird's apparent choice:
song -sparrow, field - sparrow, yellow warbler, chip-
ping-sparrow, other sparrows, Maryland yellow-
throat, yellow -breasted chat, vireos, worm -eating
warbler, indigo-bird, least-flycatcher, bluebird, Aca-
dian flycatcher, Canada flycatcher, oven-bird, king-
bird, cat -bird, phcebe, Wilson's thrush, chewink,
and wood-thrush.

But one egg is usually deposited in a single
nest; the presence of two eggs probably indicates,
as in the case of the European cuckoo, the visits
of two cow-birds rather than a second visit from
the same individual — the presence of two cow-
bird chicks of equal size being rather a proof of
this than otherwise, in that kind Nature would
seem to have accommodated the bird with an ex-
ceptional physiological resource, which matures
its eggs at intervals of three or more days, as
against the daily oviposition of its dupes, thus giv-
ing it plenty of time to make its search and take
its pick among the bird -homes. Whether the
process of evolution has similarly equipped our
cow-bird I am not aware ; but the vicious habits
of the two birds are so identical that the same
accommodating functional conditions might rea-
sonably be expected. It is, indeed, an interesting

THE CUCKOOS AND THE OUTWITTED COW-BIRD 4 1

fact well known to ornithologists that our own
American cuckoos, both the yellow -billed and
black - billed, although rudimentary nest- builders,
still retain the same exceptional interval in their
egg -laying as do their foreign namesake. The
eggs are laid from four days to a week apart, in-
stead of daily, as with most birds, their period of
perilous nidification on that haphazard apology of
a nest being thus possibly prolonged to six weeks.
Thus we find, in consequence, the anomalous spec-
tacle of the egg and full-grown chick, and perhaps
one or two fledglings of intermediate stages of
growth, scattered about at once, helter-skelter, in
the same nest. Only two years ago I discovered
such a nest not a hundred feet from my house,
containing one chick about two days old, another
almost full-fledged, while a fresh -broken egg lay
upon the ground beneath. Such a household
condition would seem rather demoralizing to the
cares of incubation, and doubtless the addled or
ousted egg is a frequent episode in our cuckoos
experience.

It is an interesting question which the contrast
of the American and European cuckoo thus pre-
sents. Is the American species a degenerate or
a progressive nest-builder? Has she advanced in
process of evolution from a parasitical progenitor

42 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

building no nest, or is the bird gradually retro-
grading to the evil ways of her notorious name-
sake ?

The evidence of this generic physiological pe-
culiarity in the intervals of oviposition, taken in
consideration with the fact of the rudimentary
nest, would seem to indicate the retention of a
now useless physiological function, and that the
bird is thus a reformer who has repudiated the
example of her ancestors, and has henceforth de-
termined to look after her own babes.

With the original presumed object of this re-
markable prolonged interval in egg -laying now
removed, the period will doubtless be reduced
through gradual evolution to accommodate itself
to the newly adopted conditions. The week's in-
terval, taken in connection with the makeshift
nest or platform of sticks, is now a disastrous
element in the life of the bird. Such of the
cuckoos, therefore, as build the more perfect nests,
or lay at shortest intervals, will have a distinct
advantage over their less provident fellows, and
the law of heredity will thus insure the continual
survival of the fittest.

The cuckoo is not alone among British birds
in its intrusion on other nests. Many other spe-
cies are occasionally addicted to the same prac-

THE CUCKOOS AND THE OUTWITTED COW-BIRD 43

tice, though such acts are apparently accidental
rather than deliberate, so far as parasitical intent
is concerned. The lapse is especially noticeable
among such birds as build in hollow trees and
boxes, as the woodpeckers and wagtails. Thus
the English starling will occasionally impose
upon and dispossess the green woodpecker. In
the process of nature in such cases the stronger
of the two birds would retain the nest, and thus
assume the duties of foster-parent. Starting from
this reasonable premise concerning the prehis-
toric cuckoo, it is not difficult to see how natural
selection, working through ages of evolution by
heredity, might have developed the habitual resig-
nation of the evicted bird, perhaps to the ultimate
entire abandonment of the function of incubation.
Inasmuch as " we have no experience in the crea-
tion of worlds," we can only presume.

Indeed, the similarities and contrasts afforded
by a comparison of the habits of all these birds —
European cuckoo, American cuckoo, and cow-bird
— afford an interesting theme for the student of
evolution. What is to be the ultimate outcome
of it all? for the murderous cuckoo must be con-
sidered merely as an innocent factor in the great
scheme of Nature's equilibrium, in which the de-
vourer and the parasite would seem to play the

4 >r

all-important
parts, the pres-
ent example
being especial-
ly emphasized
because of its
conspicuousness
and its violence to
purely human sen-
timent. The para-
site would often
seem to hold the balance
of power.

Jonathan Swifts epit-
ome of the subject, if
not specifically true, is
at least correct in its general application :

"A flea
Has smaller fleas that on him prey ;
And these have smaller still to bite 'em ;
And so proceed ad infinitum."

THE CUCKOOS AND THE OUTWITTED COW-BIRD 45

Even the tiny egg of a butterfly has its ichneu-
mon parasite, a microscopic wasp, which lays its
own egg within the larger one, which ultimately
hatches a wasp instead of the baby caterpillar.

But who ever heard of anything but good luck
falling to the lot of cow-bird or cuckoo, except as
its blighting course is occasionally arrested by the
outraged human? They always find a feathered
nest.

In this connection it is interesting to note cer-
tain developments in bird life upon the lines of
which evolution might work with revolutionary
effect. Most of our birds are helpless and gener-
ally resigned victims to the cow -bird, but there
are indications of occasional effective protest
among them. Thus the little Maryland yellow-
throat, according to various authorities, often
ousts the intruded egg, and its broken remains
are also occasionally seen on the ground beneath
the nests of the cat-bird and the oriole. The red-
eyed vireo, on the other hand, though having ap-
parently an easier task than the latter, in the
lesser depth of her pensile nest, commonly aban-
dons it altogether to the unwelcome speckled
ovum — always, I believe, if the cow- bird has an-
ticipated her own first egg.

But we have a more remarkable example of

MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

opposition in the resource of the little yellow
warbler, which I have noted as one of the favorite
dupes of the cow -bird — a deliberate, intelligent,
courageous defiance and frequent victory which
are unique in bird history, and which, if through
evolutionary process
they became the fash-
ion in featherdom,
would put the
cow -bird's mis
chief
a discount

THE CUCKOOS AND THE OUTWITTED COW-BIRD 47

identity of this pretty little warbler is certainly
familiar to most observant country dwellers, even
if unknown by name, though its golden -yellow
plumage faintly streaked with dusky brown upon
the breast would naturally suggest its popular
title of " summer yellow-bird." It is one of the
commonest of the mnio-tiltidce, or wood-warblers,
though more properly a bird of the copse and
shrubbery than of the
woods.

This nest is a beau-
tiful piece of bird
architecture. In a
walk in search of one
only a day or two ago
I procured one, which
is now before me. It
was built in the fork
of an elder-bush, to
which it was moored

by strips of fine bark and cobweb, its downy
bulk being composed by a fitted mass of fine
grass, willow cotton, fern wood, and other similar
ingredients. It is about three inches in depth,
outside measurement. But this depth greatly
varies in different specimens. Our next speci-
men may afford quite a contrast, for the yellow

48 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

warbler occasionally finds it to her interest to ex-
tend the elevation of her dwelling to a remark-
able height. On page 50 is shown one of these
nests, snugly moored in the fork of a scrub apple-
tree. Its depth from the rim to the base, viewed
from the outside, is about five inches, at least two
inches longer than necessity would seem to re-
quire, and apparently with a great waste of mate-
rial in the lower portion, as the hollow with the
pretty spotted eggs is of only the ordinary depth
of about two inches, thus hardly reaching half-
way to the base. Let us examine it closely.
There certainly is a suspicious line or division
across its upper portion, about an inch below the
rim, and extending more or less distinctly com-
pletely around the nest. By a very little persua-
sion with our finger-tip the division readily yields,
and we discover the summit of the nest to be a
mere rim — a top story, as it were — with a full-
sized nest beneath it as a foundation. Has our
warbler, then, come back to his last years home
and fitted it up anew for this summer's brood ?
Such would be a natural supposition, did we not
see that the foundation is as fresh in material as
the summit. Perhaps, then, the bird has already
raised her first spring brood, and has simply ex-
tended her May domicile, and provided a new

«V

X'~¥X

.-K :",,-, (

MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

nursery for a second family. But either supposi-
tion is quickly dispelled as we further examine
the nest ; for in separating the upper compart-
ment we have just caught a glimpse of what was,
perhaps only yesterday, the hollow of a perfect
nest; and, what is more to the point of my story,

the hollow contains an
egg — perhaps two, in
which case they will
be very dissimilar, one
of delicate white with
faint spots of brown
on its larger end, the
putting of the warbler,
the other much larger,
with its greenish sur-
face entirely speckled
with brown, and which,
if we have had any ex-
perience in bird-nest-
ing, we immediately recognize as the mischievous
token of the cow -bird. We have discovered a
most interesting curiosity for our natural-history
cabinet — the embodiment of a presumably new
form of intelligence in the divine plan looking to
the survival of the fittest. It is not known how
many years or centuries it has taken the little

THE CUCKOOS AND THE OUTWITTED COW-BIRD 5 I

warbler to develop this clever resource to outwit
the cow-bird. It is certain, however, that the lit-
tle mother has got tired of being thus imposed
upon, and is the first of her kind on record which
has taken these peculiar measures for rising above
her besetting trouble.

Who can tell what the future may develop in
the nests of other birds whose homes are similarly
invaded? I doubt not that this crying cow-bird
and cuckoo evil comes up as a matter of consid-
eration in bird councils. The two-storied nest
may yet become the fashion in featherdom, in
which case the cow -bird and European cuckoo
would be forced to build nests of their own or
perish.

But have we fully examined this nest of our
yellow warbler? Even now the lower section
seems more bulky than the normal nest should
be. Can we not trace still another faint outline
of a transverse division in the fabric, about an
inch below the one already separated ? Yes ; it
parts easily with a little disentangling of the
fibres, and another spotted egg is seen within. A
three-storied nest! A nest full of stories — cer-
tainly. I recently read of a specimen containing
four stories, upon the top of which downy pile the
little warbler sat like Patience on a monument,

52 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

presumably smiling at the discomfiture of the out-
witted cow-bird parasite, who had thus exhausted
her powers of mischief for the season, and doubt-
less convinced herself of the folly of "putting all
her eggs in one basket."

When we consider the life of the cow-bird, how
suggestive is this spectacle which we may see
every year in September in the chuckling flocks

massing for their migration, occasionally fairly
blackening the trees as with a mildew, each one
the visible witness of a double or quadruple cold-
blooded murder, each the grim substitute for a
whole annihilated singing family of song-sparrow,
warbler, or thrush ! What a blessing, at least hu-
manly speaking, could the epicurean population
en route in the annual Southern passage of this
dark throng only learn what a surpassing substi-

THE CUCKOOS AND THE OUTWITTED COW-BIRD 53

tute they would prove — on toast — for the bobo-
links which as " reed-birds " are sacrificed by the
thousands to the delectable satisfaction of those
"fine-mouthed and daintie wantons who set such
store by their tooth"!

And what the cow-bird is, so is the Continental
"cuckoo." Shall we not discriminate in our
employment of the superlative? What of the
throstle and the lark? Shall we still sins; — all
together:

" O cuckoo ! I hear thee and rejoice !
Thrice welcome darling of the spring."

DOOR-STEP NEIGHBORS

SQod r- d tep Aeiqhboz

OW little do we appreciate our opportu-
nities for natural observation ! Even un-
der the most apparently discouraging
and commonplace environment, what a neglected
harvest! A back-yard city grass-plot, forsooth,
what an invitation ! Yet there is one interroga-
tion to which the local naturalist is continually
called to respond. If perchance he dwells in Con-
necticut, how repeatedly is he asked, " Don't you
find your particular locality in Connecticut a spe-
cially rich field for natural observation ?" The
botanist of New Jersey or the ornithologist of
Esopus-on- Hudson is expected to give an affirm-
ative reply to similar questions concerning his
chosen hunting-grounds, if, indeed, he does not

58 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

avail himself of that happy aphorism with which
Gilbert White was wont to instruct his question-
ers concerning the natural-history harvest of his
beloved Selborne : "That locality is always rich-
est which is most observed."

The arena of the events which I am about to
describe and picture comprised a spot of almost
bare earth less than one yard square, which lay at
the base of the stone step to my studio door in
the country.

The path leading to the studio lay through a
tangle of tall grass and weeds, with occasional
worn patches showing the bare earth. As it ap-
proached the door-step the surface of the ground
was quite clean and baked in the sun, and barely
supported a few scattered, struggling survivors of
the sheep's-sorrel, silvery cinquefoil, ragweed, vari-
ous grasses, and tiny rushes which rimmed the
border. Sitting upon this threshold stone one
morning in early summer, I permitted my eyes to
scan the tiny patch of bare ground at my feet, and
what I observed during a very few moments sug-
gested the present article as a good piece of mis-
sionary work in the cause of nature, and a sug-
gestive tribute to the glory of the commonplace.
The episodes which I shall describe represent
the chronicle of a single clay — in truth, of but a

DOOR-STEP NEIGHBORS 59

few hours in that day — though the same events
were seen in frequent repetition at intervals for
months. Perhaps the most conspicuous objects
— if, indeed, a hole can be considered an " object "
— were those two ever-present features of every
trodden path and bare spot of earth anywhere,
ant-tunnels and that other circular burrow, about
the size of a quill, usually associated, and which is
also commonly attributed to the ants.

As I sat upon my stone step that morning, I
counted seven of these smooth clean holes within
close range, three of them hardly more than an
inch apart. They penetrated beyond the vision,
and were evidently very deep. Knowing from
past experience the wary tenant which dwelt with-
in them, I adjusted myself to a comfortable atti-
tude, and remaining perfectly motionless, awaited
developments. After a lapse of possibly five min-
utes, I suddenly discovered that I could count but
five holes ; and while recounting to make sure,
moving my eyes as slowly as possible, my numera-
tion was cut short at four. In another moment
two more had disappeared, and the remaining two
immediately followed in obscurity, until no ves-
tige of a hole of any kind was to be seen. The
ground appeared absolutely level and unbroken.
Were it not for the circular depression, or " door-

yard," around each hole, their
location would, indeed, have
been almost impossible. A
slight motion of one of my feet
at this juncture, however, and,
presto! what a change! Seven

DOOR-STEP NEIGHBORS 6l

black holes in an instant ! And now another wait
of five minutes, followed by the same hocus-pocus,
and the black spots, one by one, vanishing from
sight even as I looked upon them. But let us
keep perfectly quiet this time and examine the sus-
pected spots more carefully. Locating the posi-
tion of the hole by the little circular "door-yard,"
we can now certainly distinguish a new feature,
not before noted, at the centre of each — two
sharp curved prongs, rising an eighth of an inch
or more above the surface and widely extended.

What a danger signal to the creeping insect
innocent in its neighborhood ! How many a
tragedy in the bug world has been enacted in
these inviting, clean-swept little door-yards — these
pitfalls, so artfully closed in order that their de-
sign may be the more surely effective. As I
have said, these tunnels are commonly called
" ant-holes," perhaps with some show of reason.
It is true that ants occasionally are seen to go
into them, but not by their own choice, while the
most careful observer will wait in vain to see the
ant come out again. Here at the edge of the
grass we see one approaching now — a big red ant
from yonder ant-hill. He creeps this way and
that, and anon is seen trespassing in the precincts
of the unhealthy court. He crosses its centre,

62 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

when, click ! and in an instant his place knows
him no more, and a black hole marks the spot
where he met his fate, which is now being duly
celebrated in a supplementary fete several inches
belowground.

A poor unfortunate green caterpillar, which,
with a very little forcible persuasion in the inter-
est of science, was induced to take a short-cut
across this nice clean space of earth to the clover
beyond, was the next martyr to my passion for
original observation. He might have pursued his
even course across the arena unharmed, but he
too persisted in trespassing, and suddenly was
seen to transform from a slow creeping laggard
into the liveliest acrobat, as he stood on his head
and apparently dived precipitately into the hole
which suddenly appeared beneath him. A cer-
tain busy fly made itself promiscuous in the
neighborhood, more than once to the demoraliza-
tion of my necessary composure, as it crept per-
sistently upon my nose. What was my delight
when I observed the fickle insect in curious con-
templation of a pair of calipers at the centre of
one of the little courts ! But, whether from past
experience or innate philosophy in the insect I
know not, the pronged hooks, though coming to-
gether with a click once or twice at the near

DOOR-STEP NEIGHBORS 63

proximity of the tempter, failed in their oppor-
tunity, and the trap was soon seen carefully set
again, flush with the ground at the mouth of the
burrow.

The contrast of these clean -swept door-yards
with the mound of debris of the ants suggested an
investigation of the comparative methods of bur-
rowing and the disposal of the excavated mate-
rial. Here is a hole evidently some inches in
depth ; what, then, has become of the earth re-
moved ? Suiting action to the thought, I swept
into the openings of two or three of the holes
quite a quantity of loose earth scraped from the
close vicinity, and thus completely obliterated the
opening of burrow, door-yard and all.

I awaited in vain any sign of returning activity
at the surface, and, my patience being somewhat
taxed, I entered my studio, where I remained for
a quarter of an hour, perhaps. Upon stealing
cautiously to the doorway, I observed all the oblit-
erated holes had reappeared, and upon taking
once more my original position I was soon re-
warded with a demonstration of the method of
excavation. After a moment or two a pellet of
earth seemed suddenly to rise from within the
cavity, and when arrived at the level of the
ground was suddenly shot forth a distance of five

64 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

or six inches, as though thrown from a tiny round
flat shovel, which suddenly flashed from the open-
ing, and as quickly retired to its depths, though
not without a momentary display of two curved
prongs and a formidable show of spider-like legs.

After a short lapse of time the act was re-
peated, this time a tiny stone being brought to
the surface, and, after a brief pause at the door-
way, was jerked to a distance as from a catapult.
I now concluded to try the power of this pro-
pelling force, and taking a small stone, about
three-quarters of an inch in length and a quarter-
inch in thickness, laid it over the mouth of the
tunnel. A few minutes passed, when I noticed a
slight motion in the stone, immediately followed
by a forcible ejectment, which threw it nearly an
inch, the propelling instrument retiring so quickly
into the burrow beneath as to scarce afford a
glimpse. The stone appeared almost to have
jumped voluntarily.

For an hour or more the bombardment of pel-
lets and small stones continued from the mouth
of the pit, until a small pile of the spent ammuni-
tion had accumulated at several inches distance,
and at length the hole entirely disappeared, the
earth in its vicinity presenting an apparently
level surface— an armed peace, in truth, with the

DOOR-STEP NEIGHBORS

*«

■*-H

two touchy curved cal-
ipers on duty, as al-
ready described.

Following the hint
of past experience, I
concluded to explore
the depths of one
of these tunnels,
especially as I de-
*# sired a specimen of
t;-?/ the wily tenant for

'"v 5Sk* portraiture; and it is, in-
f$"f»i >: deed, an odd fish that one
may land on the surface if he
be sufficiently alert in his angling.
No hook or bait is required in
this sort of fishing. Taking a
long culm of timothy-grass, I in-
serted the tip into the burrow.
It progressed without impediment
two, three, six, eight inches, and
when at the depth of about ten
inches appeared to touch bottom,
which in this kind of angling is
the signal for a

strike " and the
landing of the game. Instantly
withdrawing the grass culm, I

66 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

found my fish at its tip, from which he quickly
dropped to the ground. His singular identity is
shown in my illustration — an uncouth nondescript
among grubs. His body is whitish and soft, with
a huge hump on the lower back armed with two
small hooks. His enormous head is now seen to
be apparently circular in outline, and we readily
see how perfectly it would fill the opening of the
burrow like an operculum. But a close examina-
tion shows us that this operculum is really com-
posed of two halves, on two separate segments of
the body, the segment at the extremity only being
the true head, armed with its powerful, sharp, curved
jaws. As he lies there sprawling on his six spider-
like legs, we may now easily test the skill of his trap,
and gain some idea of his voracious personality.

If with the point of our knife-blade, holding it
in the direction of the insect's body, we now touch
its tail, what a display of vehement acrobatics!
Instantly the agile body is bent backward in a
loop, while the teeth fasten to the knife-blade with
an audible click. If our finger-tip is substituted
for the steel, the force of the stroke and the prick
and grip of the jaws are unpleasantly perceptible.

In order to fully comprehend the make-up of
this curious cave-dweller we must turn biologists
for the moment. He must be considered from

DOOR-STEP NEIGHBORS 6j

the evolutionary stand-point, or at least from the
stand-point of comparative anatomy.

The first discovery that we make is that as we
now see him he is crawling on his back — a fact
which seems to have escaped his biographers
heretofore. It is, in truth, the underside of his
head which is uppermost at the mouth of the bur-
row, and his six zigzag legs are distorted back-
ward to enable him to keep this contrary position.
And what a hideous monster is this, whose flat,
metallic, dirt -begrimed face stares skyward from
this circular burrow ! Well might it strike terror
to the heart of the helpless insect which should
suddenly find himself confronted by the motion-
less stare of these four cruel, glistening black
eyes ! But he is now a " fish out of water," and is
about as helpless, nature never having intended
him to be seen outside of his burrow — at least, in
this present form. There he dwells, setting his
circular trap at the mouth of his pitfall, and wait-
ing for the voluntary sacrifice of his insect neigh-
bors to fill his maw.

But this uncouth shape, which so courts ob-
scurity, is not always thus so reasonably retiring.
A few glass tumblers inverted above as many of
these larger holes during the summer will inter-
cept the winged sprite into which he is shortly to

68 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

be transfigured — a brilliant metallic -hued beetle,
perhaps flashing with bronzy gold or glittering
like an emerald — the beautiful cicindela, or tiger-
beetle, known to the entomologist as the most
agile winged among the coleopterous tribe;
known to the populace, perhaps, simply as a
bright glittering fly that revels in the hot sum-
mer sands of the sea-shore or dusty country road,
making its short spans of glittering flight from
the very feet of the observer.

If we capture one of them with
our butterfly-net he will be found
to bear a general resemblance to
the portrait here indicated — a
slender - legged, proportionably
large-headed beetle, with formid-
able jaws capable of wide exten-
sion, and re-enforced by an insatiate carnivorous
hunger inherited from his former estate.

It will thus be seen that all the holes which we
observe in the ground are not ant-holes ; nor, in-
deed, are they monopolized by the tiger- beetles.
There were other tunnels which I saw dug in my
square yard of earth on that morning, which, while
not of quite such depth, represented equally deep-
laid plans.

While observing my cicindelas on that morn-

DOOR-STEP NEIGHBORS 69

ing, my attention was at length diverted by an
old friend of mine, who gave promise of much en-
tertainment— a tiny black wasp, whose restless,
rapid, zigzag, apparently aimless wanderings over
the ground brought him into continual danger
of contact with the snatching jaws of the cave-
dwelling tiger, from which, however, he somehow
escaped, though I distinctly heard the occasional
clicking of the eager jaws.

With short abrupt flights or agile runs of a few
inches, accompanied by nervous periodic flirts of
the folded wings, the insect had covered pretty
much of the ground in a short time, until she at
length appeared to have discovered the object of
her search, as she withdrew from beneath a sorrel
leaf a big fat spider several times as large as her-
self. Its legs were folded beneath its body, and it
was perfectly plain that this was not the first time
that it had been in the toils of the wasp, which
had evidently stung it into submission and stupor
some minutes previous. Tugging bravely at her
charge, the little black Amazon dragged her bur-
den nimbly over the ground, pulling it after her
in entire disregard of obstacles, now this way, now
that, with the same exasperating disregard of eter-
nity which she at first displayed, and at length de-
posited it on the top of a little flat weed, where it

MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

f^i%

was left, while for five minutes more she pursued
the same zigzag, apparently senseless meandering
over the entire field of earth. Now she seems
again to stumble upon her neg-
;; lected prey, and taking it once

more in her formidable jaws,
she lugs it again for a long
helter-skelter jaunt, this time
depositing it in the neighbor-
hood of a hole, which at first
sight might have been consid-
ered an "ant -hole," from the
debris which lay scattered about
in its vicinity. After consider-
able needless delay, she
is seen for once motion-
less, so far as her legs are
.- ■•'* ■ ,.,/--... concerned, but with her
-> head over the tunnel,

while, with flipping wings and
P" rapidly waving antennae, she

investigates its depths. Sat-
isfied that all is well, she again reaches her drowsy
spicier, by a tangled circuit of about a quarter of a
mile — wasp measurement — and taking the victim
in her teeth for the third time, finally succeeds in
reaching the burrow, into which, without a parti-

jc \

DOOR-STEP NEIGHBORS

31 ' i

cle of ceremony, she instantly retreats, dragging
her helpless burden after her. Both wasp and
spider are soon out of sight, and so remain per-
haps for a space of two minutes, when the tips of
the nervous antennae appear at the doorway and
the wasp emerges. What now follows is most
curious and interesting. With an energy and di-
rectness in striking contrast to
her previous proceedings, she pro
ceeds to fill the cavity, bit-
ing the earth with her man-
dibles, and with her spiked
legs kicking and shoving
in the loose soil thus col-
lected, ever and anon back-
ing up to the hole and insert-
ing the tip of her tail to force
down the mass. As the filling
is nearly completed, with the
fore feet and jaws the surround-
ing earth is scraped for material, which she imme-
diately proceeds to pack by a rhythmic tamping
motion of the tail, until, at the end of five min-
utes, perhaps, the ground-level is finally reached,
the surface smoothed, and no sign remains to
mark the grave of the stupefied spider victim.
Not an hour after this episode I was treated to

72 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

another of even more interest. As I took my
seat upon the door-step I started into flight a big
black wasp, upon whose doings I had evidently
been intruding.

This wasp was much larger than the one just
described, being about an inch in length. Its
wings were pale brown and its body jet-black,
with sundry small yellowish spots about the
thorax. But its most conspicuous feature, and
one which would ever fix the identity of the creat-
ure, was the long, slender, wire-like waist, occupy-
ing a quarter of the length of its entire body.

In a moment or two the wasp had returned,
and stood at the mouth of the shallow pit. Ey-
ing me intently for a space, and satisfied that
there was nothing to fear, she dived into the hol-
low and began to excavate, turning round and
round as she gnawed the earth at the bottom, and
shovelling it out with her spiked legs. Now and
then she would back out of the burrow to recon-
noitre, and her alert attitude at such times was
very amusing — her antennae drooping towards the
burrow and in incessant motion ; the abdomen
on its long wire stem bobbing up and down at
regular intervals, accompanied by a flipping mo-
tion of the wings ; the short fore legs, one or both,
upraised with comical effect.

DOOR-STEP NEIGHBORS

A As the tunnel was

lArmB!? deepened a new meth-

/f. li/^y^ °d of excavation was

.' J employed. It has now

reached a depth of an

C ^i--rfSe^^'

74 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

inch, only the extremity of the insect's body ap-
pearing, and the two hindermost legs clinging
to surrounding earth for purchase. The deep
digging is now accompanied by a continual buz-
zing noise, resembling that produced by a blue-
bottle fly held captive between one's fingers. At
intervals of about ten or fifteen seconds the wasp
would quickly back out of the burrow, bring-
ing a load of sand, which it held between the
back of the jaws and its thorax, sustained at the
sides by the two upraised fore legs. After a mo-
ment's pause with this burden, the insect would
make a sudden short darting flight of a foot or
more in a quick circuit, hurling the sand a yard
or more distant from the burrow. At the end of
about fifteen minutes the burrow was sunk to the
depth of an inch and a half, the wasp entirely dis-
appearing, and indicated only by the continuous
buzzing.

At this time, the luncheon hour having arrived,
I was obliged to pause in my investigations, and
in order to be able to locate the burrow in the
event of its obliteration by the wasp before my
return, I scratched a circle in the hard dirt, the
hole being at its exact centre.

Upon my return, an hour later, I was met with
a surprise. The ways of the digger-wasps of

DOOR-STEP NEIGHBORS

& ,j

various species were fa-
miliar, but I now noted
a feature of wasp -engi-
neering which indeed
seems to await its chron-

£fti

a* -3*:

r2% <gfr

76 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

icier, as I find no mention of it by the wasp-
historians.

At the exact centre of my circle, in place of a
cavity, I now found a tiny pile of stones, sup-
ported upon a small stick and fragment of leaf,
which had been first drawn across the opening.

This was evidently a mere temporary protec-
tion of the burrow, I reasoned, while the digger
had departed in search of prey, and my surmise
was soon proved to be correct, as I observed the
wasp, with bobbing abdomen and flipping wings,
zigzagging about the vicinity. Presently disap-
pearing beneath a small plantain leaf, she quickly
emerged, drawing behind her not a spicier, as in
the case of her smaller predecessor, but a big
green caterpillar, nearly double her own length,
and as large around as a slate-pencil — a pecul-
iar, pungent, waspy - scented species of " puss-
moth " larva, which is found on the elm, and with
which I chanced to be familiar.

The victim being now ready for burial, the
wasp sexton proceeded to open the tomb. Seiz-
ing one stone after another in her widely opened
jaws, they were scattered right and left, when, with
apparent ease and prompt despatch, the listless
larva was drawn towards the burrow, into whose
depths he soon disappeared. Then, after a short

DOOR-STEP NEIGHBORS JJ

and suggestive interval, followed the emergence
of the wasp, and the prompt filling in of the requi-
site earth to level the cavity, much as already
described, after which the wasp took wing and
disappeared, presumably bent upon a repetition
of the performance elsewhere. But she had not
simply buried this caterpillar victim, nor was the
caterpillar dead, for these wasp cemeteries are, in
truth, living tombs, whose apparently dead inmates
are simply sleeping, narcotized by the venom of
the wasp sting, and thus designed to afford fresh
living food for the young wasp grub, into whose
voracious care they are committed.

By inserting my knife-blade deep into the soil
in the neighborhood of this burrow I readily un-
earthed the buried caterpillar, and disclosed the
ominous egg of the wasp firmly imbedded in its
body. The hungry larva which hatches from this
egg soon reaches maturity upon the all-sufficient
food thus stored, and before many weeks is trans-
formed to the full-fledged, long-waisted wasp like
its parent.

The disproportion in the sizes of the predatory
wasps and their insect prey is indeed astonishing.
The great sand -hornet selects for its most fre-
quent victim the buzzing cicada, or harvest-fly, an
insect much larger than itself, and which it carries

;8 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

off to its long sand tunnels by short flights from
successive elevated points, such as the limbs of
trees and summits of rocks, to which it repeatedly
lugs its clumsy prey. In the present instance the
contrast between the slight body of the wasp and
the plump dimensions of the caterpillar was even
more marked, and I determined to ascertain the
proportionate weight of victor and victim. Con-
structing a tiny pair of balances with a dead grass
stalk, thread, and two disks of paper, I weighed
the wasp, using small square pieces of paper of
equal size as my weights. I found that the wasp
exactly balanced four of the pieces. Removing
the wasp and substituting the caterpillar, I pro-
ceeded to add piece after piece of the paper
squares until I had reached a total of twenty-
eight, or seven times the number required by the
wasp, before the scales balanced. Similar experi-
ments with the tiny black wasp and its spicier vic-
tim showed precisely the same proportion, and
the ratio was once increased eight to one in the
instance of another species of slender orange-and-
black- bodied digger which I subsequently found
tugging its caterpillar prey upon my door -step
patch.

The peculiar feature of the piling of stones above
the completed burrow was not a mere individual ac-

DOOR-STEP NEIGHBORS

complishment of my wire-waisted wasp. On several
occasions since I have observed the same manoeuvre,
which is doubtless the regular procedure with this

and other species.
The smaller or-
ange-spotted wasp
just alluded to in-
dicated to me the
location of her den
by pausing sug-

gestively in front
of a tiny cairn. In
this instance a
small flat stone,
considerably larger
than the tunnel,
had been laid over
the opening, and
the others piled
upon it. On two

ar-

4fe

8o MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

occasions I have surprised this same species of
wasp industriously engaged in the selection of
a suitable flat foundation-stone with which to
cover her burrow : her widely extended slender
jaws enable her to grasp a pebble nearly a third
of an inch in width.

In my opening vignette I have indicated two
other door-step neighbors which bore my indus-
trious wasps company in their arena of one square
yard. To the left, surrounding a grass stem, will
be seen an object which is unpleasantly familiar
to most country folks — that salivary mass vari-
ously known by the libellous names of "snake-
spit," "cow -spit," " cuckoo -spit," "toad -spit," and
"sheep -spit," or the inelegant though expressive
substitute of "gobs." The foam -bath pavilion of
the "spume -bearer," with his glittering, bubbly
domicile of suds, is certainly familiar to most of
my readers ; but comparatively few, I find, have
cared to investigate the mysterious mass, or to
learn the identity of the proprietor of the foamy
lavatory.

The common name of " cow-spit," with the im-
plied indignity to our " rural divinity," becomes
singularly ludicrous when we observe not only
the frequent generous display of the suds sam-
ples, thousands upon thousands in a single small

DOOR-STEr NEIGHBORS

meadow, but the further fact that each mass is so
exactly landed upon the central stalk of grass or
other plant — "spitted" through its centre, as it
were. The true expectorator is within, laved in
his own home-made suds. If we care to blow or
scrape off the bubbles, we readily disclose him
— a green speckled
bug, about a third of
an inch in length in
larger specimens, with
prominent black eyes,
and blunt, wedge-
shaped body.

In the appended
sketch I have indi-
cated two views of
him, back and profile,
creeping upon a grass
stalk. A glance at
the insect tells the

entomologist just where to place him, as he is
plainly allied to the cicadae, and thus belongs to
the order Hemiptera, or family of " bugs," which
implies, among other things, that the insect pos-
sesses a " beak for sucking." To what extent this
tiny soaker is possessed of such a beak may be in-
ferred from the amount of moisture with which

82 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

he manages to inundate himself, which has all
been withdrawn from the stem upon which he
has fastened himself, and finally exuded from the
pores of his body.

This is the spume-bearer, Apropkora,'m his first
or larval estate, which continues for a few weeks
only. Erelong he will graduate from these igno-
minious surroundings, and we shall see quite an-
other sort of creature — an agile, pretty atom, one
of which I have indicated in flight, its upper
wings being often brilliantly colored, and re-
enforced by a pair of hind feet which emulate
those of the flea in their powers of jumping,
which agility has won the insect the popular
name of " froghopper." They abound in the late
summer meadow, and hundreds of them may be
captured by a few sweeps of a butterfly-net among
the grass.

My other remaining claimant for notice, shown
upon the plant at the right margin of page 60, is
a modest and inconspicuous individual, and might
readily escape attention, save that a more intent
observer might possibly wonder at the queer lit-
tle tubular pinkish blossoms upon the plant — a
rush — while a keen-eyed botanist would instantly
challenge the right of a juncus to such a tubular
blossom at all, especially at seed - time, and thus

DOOR-STEP NEIGHBORS 83

investigate. But the entomologist will probably
classify this peculiar blossom at a glance, from
its family resemblance to other specimens with
which he is familiar. He will know, for instance,
that this is a sort of peripatetic or nomadic blos-
som that will travel about on the plant, with
which its open end will always remain in close
contact. Many of the individuals are seen appar-
ently growing upright out of the rounded seed-
pod of the rush ; and when the pink or speckled
tube finally concludes to take up its travels, a
clean round hole marks the spot of its tarrying,
and an empty globular shell tells the secret of
this brief attachment.

For this petal - like tube, so commonly to be
seen upon the little rush of our paths, is, in truth,
a tiny silken case enclosing the body of a small
larva — a diminutive psychid, or sack-bearer, which
I have not chanced to see described. Only the
head and six prolegs of the occupant ever emerge
from its case. Dragging its house along upon
the plant, it attaches the open mouth of the sack
close to the green seed-pod, after which the shell
is gnawed through at the point of contact, and
the young seeds devoured at pleasure, when a
new journey is made to the next capsule, and thus
until the maturity of the larva. At this time the

MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

case is about half an inch in length. It is now
firmly attached to the plant. The opening is
completely spun over with silk, and the case
becomes a cocoon for the winter; and a few of
these September cocoons are well worth gather-
ing, if only to see the queer little moth which
will emerge from them the following spring.

A QUEER LITTLE FAMILY ON THE
BITTERSWEET

/"'V "'"-W-- '"' , Pl'i,;. c V-,, ■ ' l "'

t ,'Jf i N a recent half- hour's relaxation, while
.. fif] comfortably stretched in my hammock
e I' upon the porch of my country studio,
I was surprised with a singular enter-
tainment. I soon found myself most studiously
engaged. Entwining the corner post of the piazza,
and extending for some distance along the eaves,
a luxuriant vine of bittersweet had made itself at
home. The currant-like clusters of green fruits,
hanging in pendent clusters here and there, were
now nearly mature, and were taking on their golden
hue, and the long, free shoots of tender growth were
reaching out for conquest on right and left in all
manner of graceful curves and spirals. Through

;

88 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

an opening in this shadowy foliage came a glimpse
of the hill-side slope across the valley upon whose
verge my studio is perched, and as my eye pene-
trated this pretty vista it was intercepted by what
appeared to be a shadowed portion of a rose branch
crossing the opening and mingling with the bit-
tersweet stems. In my idle mood I had for some
moments so accepted it without a thought, and
would doubtless have left the spot with this im-
pression had I not chanced to notice that this
stem, so beset with conspicuous thorns, was not
consistent in its foliage. My suspicions aroused,
I suddenly realized that my thorny stem was in
truth merely a bittersweet branch in masquerade,
and that I had been "fooled" by a sly midget
who had been an old-time acquaintance of my
boyhood, but whom I had long neglected.

Every one knows the climbing- bittersweet, or
" waxwork " {Celastrus scandens), with its bright
berries hanging in clusters in the autumn copses,
each yellow berry having now burst open in thin
sections and exposed the scarlet -coated seeds.
Almost any good-sized vine, if examined early in
the months of July and August, will show us the
thorns, and more sparingly until October, and
queer thorns they are, indeed ! Here an isolated
one, there two or three together, or perhaps a

A QUEER LITTLE FAMILY ON THE BITTERSWEET 89

dozen in a quaint family circle around the stem,
their curved points all, no matter how far sepa-
rated, inclined in the same direction, as thorns
properly should be. Let us gently invade the
little colony with our finger-tip. Touch one
never so gently and it instantly disappears. Was
ever thorn so deciduous ? And now observe its
fellows. Here one slowly glides up the stem ; an-
other in the opposite direction ; another sideways.
In a moment more the whole family have entirely
disappeared, as if by hocus - pocus, until we dis-
cover, by a change of our point of view, that they
have all congregated on the opposite side of the
stem, with an agility which would have done
credit to the proverbial gray squirrel.

This animated thorn is about a quarter of an
inch long, and dark brown in color, with two yel-
lowish spots on the edge of its back.

Nor is this all the witchery of this bittersweet
thorn. It is well worth our further careful study.
Seen collectively, the thorny rose branch is in-
stantly suggested, but occasionally, when we ob-
serve a single isolated specimen, especially in the
month of July, he will certainly masquerade in an
entirely new guise. Look ! quick. Turn your
magnifier hither on this green shoot. No thorn
this. Is it not rather a whole covey of quail,

MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

mother and young creeping along the vine ? Who
would ever have thought of a thorn ! Turning now
to our original group, how perfectly do they take
the hint, for are they not a family of tiny birds with
long necks and swelling breasts and drooping tails,
verily like an autumn brood of " Bob Whites"?

" 1

.„■

A QUEER LITTLE FAMILY ON THE BITTERSWEET 91

But the little harlequin is as wary a bird as he
was a thorn ! No sooner do we touch his head
with our finger than with an audible " click " he is
off on a most agile jump, which he extends with
buzzing wings, and is even now perhaps aping a
thorn among a little group of his fellows some-
where among the larger bittersweet branches.

It is only as we capture one of the little pro-
tean acrobats between our finger-tips and ex-
amine him with a magnifier that we can really
make " head or tail " of his queer anatomy. Even
thus enlarged it is difficult to get entirely rid of
the idea of a bird. I have shown a group of the
insects in various attitudes, the position of the
eyes alone serving as a starting-point for our
comprehension of his singular make-up. The tall
neck-like or thorn-like prominence is then seen to
be a mere elongated helmet, which is prolonged
into a steep angle behind, so as to cover the back
of the creature like a peaked roof, a feature from
which the scientific name of this particular group
of insects is derived, Membracis, meaning sharp-
edged, the sides of the slope being covered by the
close-fitting wings, which, though apparently com-
pact with the body of the insect, are nevertheless
always available for instant and most agile flight.
We now discover two pairs of stout legs just be-

MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

neath the edge of the wings, a third more slender
pair being concealed behind, ready for immediate
use in association with these buzzing wings when
the whim of the midget prompts it to leap.

This insect is the
tree -hopper, and is
but one of many
equally curious and
^^ mimetic species
to be found
araotiff the

%-M

smaller branches of va-
rious trees and shrubs. -

Our largest membra-
cis is to be seen — with , ■'-: ;i

difficulty — on the ter- ,'l

minal twigs of the lo-
cust-tree, its outlines

so exactly imitating the thorny growths of the
branch as to escape detection even by the closest
scrutiny. Another remarkable species is a pro-
tege of the oak, so closely simulating the warty
bark of the smaller branches upon which it is

A QUEER LITTLE FAMILY ON THE BITTERSWEET 93

found that our eyes may rest upon it repeatedly
without recognizing it. The life history of these
singular insects is quite similar, and is soon told.
The membracis belongs to the tribe of " Bu^s,"
Hemiptera, which implies that it possesses a beak
instead of jaws, by which it sucks the sap of
plants, precisely like the aphis, or plant-louse.
This tiny beak we can readily distinguish bent
beneath the body of our bittersweet hopper. In-
serting it deep into the succulent bark, the para-
site remains for hours as motionless as the thorn
it imitates, the lower outline of its body hugging
close against the bark. The curious suggestion
of the thorn is produced not only by the outline,
but by the curious fact that the hopper never sits
across the twig, but always in the direction of its
length ; and, what is more, the projecting point of
the thorax is always directed towards the end of
the branch, or direction of growth. It is no easy
thing even for the casual botanist to determine
this nice point in a given segment of a bitter-
sweet branch placed in his hand, the position of
the chance leaf or leaf scar being his only guide.
But the Membracis binotala rarely — indeed never,
so far as I have examined — makes a mistake.
Thus the wandering spray of bittersweet, recurve
and twist upon itself as it may, will always dis-

MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

close the little hopper or colony of them headed
for its tip.

But I have omitted to mention one singular
feature which is the usual accompaniment of my
group of hoppers, and is, indeed, the most con-
spicuous sign of their presence on any given
shrub. In the cut below I have indicated a short
section of a bittersweet branch as it commonly
appears, the twig apparently beset with tiny tufts
of cotton, occasionally so numerous as to present
a continuous white mass, usually on the lower
side of the branch, where its direction is hori-
zontal. They are thus easily seen from below,
and a closer examination will always reveal one
or more of the black animated thorns in their
immediate vicinity, suggesting the responsible

A QUEER LITTLE FAMILY ON THE BITTERSWEET 95

source. These tufts are pure white, a little over
an eighth of an inch in length, and semicircular
in vertical outline. The natural presumption is
the idea of maternity, the mother hopper guard-
ing her bundles of white eggs, or her infant hop-
pers, perhaps, snugly tucked up in their downy
swaddling-clothes. But a closer examination
completely dispels this illusion. Instead of the
supposed fluffy cotton, we now discover the
white substance to be of firm though somewhat
sticky consistency, its surface, moreover, beautiful-
ly ridged from base to summit in parallel rounded
flutings, which meet and interfold like a braid
along the summit. If with a sharp knife we now
cut downward through and across the mass, we
find our tuft to be a mere frothy shell containing
two hollow compartments, with a thin central par-
tition extending through the whole length of the
cavity. But there is no sign of an egg or other
life to be disclosed anywhere, either in its sub-
stance or its concealment. What, then, is the
office of this tiny fragile house of congealed foam,
with its snowy aerated structure, its double arched
chambers, its corrugated walls and ceilings, and
missing tenant or host? Such was the riddle
which it propounded to me, and guided by some
previous knowledge of the habits of allied insects,

96 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

I was soon enabled to witness a solution of at
least a part of its mystery.

This little thorn-like tree-hopper and all of its
queer harlequin tribe are near relatives to the
buzzing cicada, or harvest-fly, whose whizzing din
in the dog-days has won it the popular misnomer
of " locust."

To the average listener this insect is a mere
" wandering voice and a mystery," and its singu-
lar form, wide prominent eyes, glassy wings, and
double drums are always a surprise to the tyro
who first identifies the grotesque as his well-
known " locust." Its musical accomplishments
during this brief period of its life are known to
all, but few have cared to interest themselves in
the early history of the singer, ere it perfected its
musical resources " for the delight of man." But
the naturalist, and especially the arboriculturist
and fruit-grower, know to their cost of other
tricks of the cicada, or rather of Mrs. Cicada,
immortalized by Zenarchus the Rhodian as his
" noiseless wife " —

" Happy the cicadas' lives,
Since they all have noiseless wives."

I have alluded to the egg of the cicada "in-
serted in the bark of a twig." This act is accom-

A QUEER LITTLE FAMILY ON THE BITTERSWEET 97

plished by a knife-like ovipositor, which literally
gouges a deep gash into the tender wood of vari-
ous twigs, a number of the eggs being implanted
in its depths, often causing the death of the
branch. Shortly after hatching, the young cica-
das leap for the ground, and burrowing beneath
the surface, remain for a period varying from
three to seventeen years, according to the spe-
cies, to complete their transformations. Now the
habits of my little tree-hopper are somewhat mod-
elled after its big cousin. Knowing that the lit-
tle insect was provided with a keen-edged oviposi-
tor, and was in the habit of thrusting its tiny
eggs beneath the bark, and realizing, too, that
these strange tufts were of course in some wav
connected with the maternal instinct, I was led to
investigate. Selecting a branch where the tufts
and hoppers seemed most prolific, I brought my
magnifying-glass to bear upon them at a respect-
ful distance. Was ever actual thorn more mo-
tionless or non-committal than most of these?

their under surfaces hugging close against the
bark, their telltale feet closely withdrawn, and all
their pointed helmets inclined in the same paral-
lel direction. One after another of the sly little
family was examined without a revelation. Not
until I had reached the upper limit of the group

g8 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

did I get any encouragement. Here I discovered
une of the midgets in a new position, its pointed
helmet inclined farther downward, and its other
extremity correspondingly raised, so that I could
see beneath its body. I now observed what at
first appeared to be the hind leg of the farther
side of the body protruding beneath, but in an-
other moment noted my error, and saw that its
sharp point had penetrated the bark, into which
it soon sank quite deeply, and I realized that the
ovipositor was now conducting its tiny eggs into
the cambium layer of the bark. Without waiting
for this particular individual to finish her labors,
which might be extended for hours for aught I
knew, I turned my glass upon its nearest neigh-
bor, and a most accommodating specimen she
proved, disclosing all the mysteries of the little
froth house, its strange material, and unique
method of construction. What I saw reminded
me irresistibly of the technique of the cake-frost-
ing art of the fancy baker, with its flowing tube
of white condiment, and its following tracery of
questionable design in high relief. This accom-
modating specimen had apparently just com-
pleted her egg -laying, or had perhaps just filled
one nest; and while her attitude was precisely
similar to that of her neighbor, I noticed a tiny

A QUEER LITTLE FAMILY ON THE BITTERSWEET 99

ball of glistening froth at the tip of the ovipositor.
This was attached to the bark by a touch, and
from this starting-point the construction of the
glistening house was continued, the apex of the
ovipositor pouring out its endless puffy roll of
aerated cement, which seemed to set as soon as
laid.

And what a convenient implement this for a
froth-house builder who is compelled to work be-
hind her back — mortar-feeder, trowel, darby, com-
pass, and level all in one! Beginning with the
first touch of the cement, the flowing point de-
scribes a very small half-circle to the right, again
meeting the bark. It is now carried inward and
upward, describing a very close circle with scarce-
ly any space intervening, a similar circle being re-
peated on the left side. A new tier is then be-
gun in the same manner, only this time a little
larger in the sweep, and leaving a perceptible
opening at the right as the central wall is carried
upward with slightly decreased material. Re-
turning down the central wall again, the white
coil is carried to the left along the bark, and up
again on the other outer edge, until it once more
meets its fellow at the ridge-pole, where the two
coils appear to interlock as in a braid. And thus
the little builder continues, enlarging the cavity

IOO MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

with each circuit, until the full height is reached,
and then decreasing proportionately until the
glistening braided dome is tapered off again
against the bark.

Now what is the object of this frothy pavilion ?
The life history of the insect, in contrast to that
of the cicada, will perhaps throw a little light on

that question. In the cicada, as I have shown,
the eggs are inserted in the bark, but the young,
hatching about six weeks later, immediately for-
sake the parent tree and enter the ground. But
the young of our bittersweet membracis are not
thus fickle, the entire life of the insect being spent
on the plant. Moreover, its eggs are laid in late
summer, and do not hatch until the following

A QUEER LITTLE FAMILY ON THE BITTERSWEET IOI

spring. What, then, is this canopy of the tree-
hopper but the provision of a thoughful mother, a
pavilion about her offspring as a shelter through
the winter storms? In early July the tiny hop-
pers emerge from their egg-cases, and presumably
creep out from their luminous domicile, and later
on in the season these broods of varying numbers
and all sizes are to be seen among the young
stems of the plant, their beaks inserted, their
pointed heads invariably in the same direction —
towards the top of the branch. Even though in
flight one of the midgets is seen to alight in vio-
lence to the rule, he instantly recognizes his mis-
take, and quickly glides round to the orthodox
position.

This curious insect is chiefly confined to the
bittersweet, though he is occasionally found in the
company of a much bigger cousin of his on the
branches of the locust, where these same telltale
corrugated frothy pavilions are often seen to
clothe the young twigs in their white tufts, the
similar product of the larger species, which thus
also presumably spends its entire life upon the
locust-tree.

THE WELCOMES OF THE FLOWERS

jg^pSCMSS^Fl

is now some thirty years since
the scientific world was startled
by the publication of that won-
derful volume, " The Fertilization
of Orchids," by Charles Darwin;
for though slightly anticipated
by his previous work, " Origin of
Species," this volume was the
first important presentation of
the theory of cross -fertilization
in the vegetable kingdom, and
is the one that is primarily associated with the
subject in the popular mind. The interpretation
and elucidation of the mysteries which had so
long lain hidden within those strange flowers,
whose eccentric forms had always excited the
curiosity and awe alike of the botanical frater-
nity and the casual observer, came almost like
a divine revelation to every thoughtful reader of
his remarkable pages. Blossoms heretofore con-

io6

MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

sidered as mere caprices and grotesques were now
shown to be eloquent of deep divine intention,
their curious shapes a demonstrated expression of
welcome and hospitality to certain insect coun-
terparts upon whom their very perpetuation de-
pended.

Thus primarily identified with the orchid, it
was perhaps natural and excusable that popular
prejudice should have associated the subject of
cross-fertilization with the orchid alone ; for it is
even to-day apparently a surprise to the average
mind that almost any casual wild flower will re-
veal a floral mechanism often quite as astonishing
as those of the orchids described in Darwin's vol-
ume. Let us glance, for instance, at the row of
stamens below (Fig. i), selected at random from
different flowers, with one exception wild flowers.
Almost everybody knows that the function of the
stamen is the secretion of pollen. This function,
however, has really no reference whatever to the
external form of the stamen. Why, then, this re-

Fig, i

THE WELCOMES OF THE FLOWERS 107

markable divergence? Here is an anther with
its two cells connected lengthwise, and opening at
the sides, perhaps balanced at the centre upon the
top of its stalk or filament, or laterally attached
and continuous with it; here is another opening
by pores at the tip, and armed with two or four
long horns; here is one with a feathery tail. In
another the twin cells are globular and closely as-
sociated, while in its neighbor they are widely
divergent. Another is club-shaped, and opens on
either side by one or more upraised lids; and
here is an example with its two very unequal cells
separated by a long curved ami or connective,
which is hinged at the tip of its filament; and the
procession might be continued across two pages
with equal variation.

As far back as botanical history avails us these
forms have been the same, each true to its partic-
ular species of flower, each with an underlying
purpose which has a distinct and often simple ref-
erence to its form ; and yet, incredible as it now
seems to us, the botanist of the past has been con-
tent with the simple technical description of the
feature, without the slightest conception of its
meaning, dismissing it, perhaps, with passing com-
ment upon its "eccentricity" or "curious shape."
Indeed, prior to Darwin's time it might be said

108 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

that the flower was as a voice in the wilderness.
In 1735, it is true, faint premonitions of its pres-
ent message began to be heard through their
first though faltering interpreter, Christian Conrad
Sprengel, a German botanist and school-master,
who upon one occasion, while looking into the
chalice of the wild geranium, received an inspira-
tion which led him to consecrate his life thence-
forth to the solution of the floral hieroglyphics.
Sprengel, it may be said, was the first to exalt
the flower from the mere status of a botanical
specimen.

This philosophic observer was far in advance
of his age, and to his long and arduous researches
— a basis built upon successively by Andrew
Knight, Kohlreuter, Herbert, Darwin, Lubbock,
Miiller, and others — we owe our present divina-
tion of the flowers.

In order to fully appreciate this present con-
trast, it is well to briefly trace the progress, step
by step, from the consideration of the mere ana-
tomical and physiological specimen of the earlier
botanists to the conscious blossom of to-day, with
its embodied hopes, aspirations, and welcome com-
panionships.

Most of my readers are familiar with the gen-
eral construction of a flower, but in order to in-

THE WELCOMES OF THE FLOWERS

IO9

Fig. 2

sure such comprehension it is well, perhaps, to
freshen our memory by reference to the accom-
panying diagram (Fig. 2) of an abstract flower,
the various parts being
indexed.

The calyx usually en-
closes the bud, and may
be tubular, or composed
of separate leaves or se-
pals, as in a rose. The
corolla, or colored por-
tion, may consist of several petals, as in the rose,
or of a single one, as in the morning-glory. At
the centre is the pistil, one or more, which forms
the ultimate fruit. The pistil is divided into three
parts, ovary, style, and stigma. Surrounding the
pistil are the stamens, few or many, the anther at
the extremity containing the powdery pollen.

Although these physiological features have been
familiar to observers for thousands of years, the
several functions involved were scarcely dreamed
of until within a comparatively recent period.

In the writings of ancient Greeks and Romans
we find suggestive references to sexes in flowers,
but it was not until the close of the seventeenth
century that the existence of sex was generally
recognized.

HO MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

In 16S2 Nehemias Grew announced to the sci-
entific world that it was necessary for the pollen
of a flower to reach the stigma or summit of the
pistil in order to insure the fruit.
I have indicated his claim picto-

Fig. 3

rially at A (Fig. 3), in the series of historical pro-
gression. So radical was this " theory " considered
that it precipitated a lively discussion among the
wiseheads, which was prolonged for fifty years, and
only finally settled by Linnanis, who reaffirmed the

THE WELCOMES OF THE FLOWERS III

facts declared by Grew, and verified them by such
absolute proof that no further doubts could be en-
tertained. The inference of these early authorities
regarding this process of pollination is perfectly
clear from their statements. The stamens in most
flowers were seen to surround the pistil, " and of
course the presumption was that they naturally
shed the pollen upon the stigma," as illustrated at
B in my series. The construction of most flowers
certainly seemed designed to fulfil this end. But
there were other considerations which had been
ignored, and the existence of color, fragrance, honey,
and insect association still continued to challenge
the wisdom of the more philosophic seekers. How
remarkable were some of those early speculations
in regard to "honey," or, more properly, nectar!
Patrick Blair, for instance, claimed that " honey
absorbed the pollen," and thus fertilized the ovary.
Pontidera thought that its office was to keep the
ovary in a moist condition. Another botanist ar-
gued that it was " useless material thrown off in
process of growth." Krunitz noted that " bee-
visited meadows were most healthy," and his in-
ference was that "honey was injurious to the
flowers, and that bees were useful in carrying it
off"! The great Linnaeus confessed himself puz-
zled as to its function.

112 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

For a period of fifty years the progress of inter-
pretation was completely arrested. The flowers
remained without a champion until 1787, when
Sprengel began his investigations, based upon the
unsolved mysteries of color and markings of pet-
als, fragrance, nectar, and visiting insects. The
prevalent idea of the insect being a mere idle ac-
cessory to the flower found no favor with him.
He chose to believe that some deep plan must lie
beneath this universal association. At the incep-
tion of this conviction he chanced to observe in
the flower of the wild geranium (G. sylvaticum) a
fact which only an inspired vision could have
detected — that the minute hairs at the base of the
petal, while disclosing the nectar to insects, com-
pletely protected it from rain. Investigation
showed the same conditions in many other
flowers, and the inference he drew was further
strengthened by the remarkable discovery of his
" honey -guides " in a long list of blossoms, by
which the various decorations of spots, rings, and
converging veins upon the petals indicated the
location of the nectar.

His labors were now concentrated on the work
of interpretation, until at length his researches,
covering a period of two or three years, were
given to the world. In a volume bearing the fol-

THE WELCOMES OF THE FLOWERS I 1 3

lowing victorious title, " The Secrets of Nature in
Forms and Fertilization of Flowers Discovered,"
he presented a vast chronicle of astonishing facts.
The previous discoveries of Grew and Linnaeus
were right so far as they went — viz., " the pollen
must reach the stigma " — but those learned au-
thorities had missed the true secret of the process.
In proof of which Sprengel showed that in a great
many flowers, as I have shown at C(Fig. 3), this de-
posit of pollen is naturally impossible, owing to the
relative position of the floral parts, and that the
pollen could not reach the stigma except by artifi-
cial aid. He then announced his startling theory:

1. " Flowers are fertilized by insects."

2. Insects in approaching the nectar brush the
pollen from the anthers with various hairy parts
of their bodies, and in their motions convey it to
the stigma.

But Sprengel's seeming victory was doomed to
be turned to defeat. The true "secret" was yet
unrevealed in his pages. He had given a poser
to Linnaeus (C), yet his own work abounded with
similar strange inconsistencies, which, while being
scarcely admitted by himself, or ingeniously ex-
plained, were nevertheless fatal to the full recog-
nition of his wonderful researches. For seventy
years his book lay almost unnoticed.

114 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

"Let us not underrate the value of a fact; it
will one clay flower in a truth." The defects in
Sprengel's work were, after all, not actual defects.
The error lay simply in his interpretation of his
carefully noted facts. As Hermann Muller has
said, " Sprengel's investigations afford an example
of how even work that is rich in acute observa-
tion and happy interpretation may remain inoper-
ative if the idea at its foundation is defective."
What, then, was the flaw in Sprengel's work ?
Simply that he had seen but half the "secret"
which he claimed to have "discovered." Starting
to prove that insects fertilize the flowers, his care-
fully observed facts only served to demonstrate in
many cases the reverse — that insects could not fer-
tilize flowers in the manner he had declared. He
was met at every hand, for instance, by floral prob-
lems such as are shown at E and F, where the
pollen and the stigma in the same flower matured
at different periods; and even though he recog-
nized and admitted that the pollen must in many
cases be transferred from one flower to another,
he failed to divine that such was actually the
common vital plan involved. It may readily be
imagined that his great work precipitated an in-
tense and prolonged controversy , and incited
emulous investigation by the botanists of his

THE WELCOMES OF THE FLOWERS I T 5

time. Though a few of the more advanced of his
followers, among them Andrew Knight (1799),
Kohlreuter (181 1), Herbert (1837), Gartner (1844),
clearly recognized the principle and foreshadowed
the later theory of cross -fertilization, it was not
until the inspired insight of Darwin, as voiced in
his " Origin of Species," contemplated these strange
facts and inconsistencies of Sprengel that their
full significance and actual value were discovered
and demonstrated, and his remarkable book, for-
gotten for seventy years, at last appreciated for
its true worth. Alas for the irony of fate! Un-
der Darwin's interpretation the very "defects"
which had rendered Sprengel's work a failure
now became the absolute witness of a deeper
truth which Sprengel had failed to discern. One
more short step and he had reached the goal.
But this last step was reserved for the later seer.
He took the fatal double problem of Sprengel —
as shown at E and F, to express the consumma-
tion pictorially — and by the simple drawing of a
line, as it were, as indicated between G and H, in-
stantly reconciled all the previous perplexities and
inconsistencies, thus demonstrating the funda-
mental plan involved in floral construction to be
not merely "insect fertilization," the fatal postulate
assumed by Sprengel, but cross- fertilization — a

Il6 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

fact which, singularly enough, the latter's own
pages proved without his suspicion.

Thus we see the four successive steps in pro-
gressive knowledge, from Grew in 1682, Linnaeus,
1735, Sprengel, 17S7, to Darwin, 1857-1858, and
realize with astonishment that it has taken over
one hundred and seventy-five years for humanity
to learn this apparently simple lesson, which for
untold centuries has been noised abroad on the
murmuring wings of every bee in the meadow,
and demonstrated in almost every flower.

This infinite field now open before him, Dar-
win began his investigations, and the whole world
knows his triumphs. He has been followed by a
host of disciples, to whom his books have come as
an inspiration and ennobling impulse. Hilde-
brand, Delpino, Axell, Lubbock, and, latest and
perhaps most conspicuous, Hermann Muller, to
whom the American reader is especially referred.
" The Fertilization of Flowers," by this most
scholarly and indefatigable chronicler, presents the
most complete compendium and bibliography of the
literature on the subject that have yet appeared.
Even to the unscientific reader it will prove full of
revelations of this awe-inspiring interassociation
and interdependence of the flower and the insect.

Many years ago the grangers of Australia de-

THE WELCOMES OF THE FLOWERS 117

termined to introduce our red clover into that
country, the plant not being native there. They
imported American seed, and sowed it, with the
result of a crop luxuriant in foliage and bloom,
but not a seed for future sowing! Why? Be-
cause the American bumblebee had not been con-
sulted in the transaction. The clover and the
bee are inseparable counterparts, and the plant
refuses to become reconciled to the separation.
Upon the introduction and naturalization of the
American bumblebee, however, the transported
clover became reconciled to its new habitat, and
now flourishes in fruition as well as bloom.

Botany and entomology must henceforth go
hand-in-hand. The flower must be considered as
an embodied welcome to an insect affinity, and all
sorts of courtesies prevail among them in the re-
ception of their invited guests. The banquet
awaits, but various singular ceremonies are en-
joined between the cup and the lip, the stamens
doing the hospitalities in time-honored forms of
etiquette. Flora exacts no arbitrary customs.
Each flower is a law unto itself. And how ex-
pressive, novel, and eccentric are these social cus-
toms ! The garden salvia, for instance, slaps the
burly bumblebee upon the back and marks him
for her own as he is ushered in to the feast. The

Il8 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

mountain-laurel welcomes the twilight moth with
an impulsive multiple embrace. The desmodium
and genesta celebrate their hospitality with a
joke, as it were, letting their threshold fall be-
neath the feet of the caller, and startling him with
an explosion and a cloud of yellow powder, sug-
gesting the day pyrotechnics of the Chinese.
The prickly-pear cactus encloses its buzzing vis-
itor in a golden bower, from which he must
emerge at the roof as dusty as a miller. The
barberry, in similar vein, lays mischievous hold
of the tongue of its sipping bee, and I fancy, in
his early acquaintance, before he has learned its
ways, gives him more of a welcome than he had
bargained for. The evening primrose, with out-
stretched filaments, hangs a golden necklace about
the welcome murmuring noctuid, while the vari-
ous orchids excel in the ingenuity of their saluta-
tions. Here is one which presents a pair of tiny
clubs to the sphinx-moth at its threshold, gluing
them to its bulging eyes. Another attaches simi-
lar tokens to the tongues of butterflies, while the
cypripedium speeds its parting guest with a stick-
ing-plaster smeared all over its back. And so
we might continue almost indefinitely. From the
stand-point of frivolous human etiquette we smile,
perhaps, at customs apparently so whimsical and

THE WELCOMES OF THE FLOWERS 119

unusual, forgetting that such a smile may partake
somewhat of irreverence. For what are they all
but the divinely imposed conditions of interasso-
ciation ? say, rather, interdependence, between the
flower and the insect, which is its ordained com-
panion, its faithful messenger, often its sole spon-
sor— the meadows murmuring with an intricate
and eloquent system of intercommunings beside
which the most inextricable tangle of metropoli-
tan electrical currents is not a circumstance.
What a storied fabric were this murmurous tan-
gle woven clay by day, could each one of these
insect messengers, like the spider, leave its visible
trail behind it !

As a rule, these blossom ceremonies are of the
briefest description. Occasionally, however, as in
the cypripedium and in certain of the arums, or
" jack-in-the-pulpit," and aristolochias, the welcome
becomes somewhat aggressive, the guest being
forcibly detained awhile after tea, or, as in the case
of our milkweed, occasionally entrapped for life.

From this companionable point of view let us
now look again at the strange curved stamen of
the sage. Why this peculiar formation of the
long curved arm pivoted on its stalk? Consid-
ered in the abstract, it can have no possible mean-
ing; but taken in association with the insect to

MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

intelligible it becomes !
Every one is familiar
with the sage of the
country garden, its lav-
ender flowers arranged

in whorls in a long cluster at the tips of the
stems. One of these flowers, a young one from
the top of the cluster, is shown at A (Fig. 4), in
section, the long thread-like pistil starting from

1 IE WELCOMES OF THE FLOWERS

121

the ovary, and curving upward beneath the arch
of the flower, with its forked stigma barely pro-
truding (B). There are two of the queer stamens,
one on each side of the open-
ing of the blossom, and situ-
ated as shown, their anthers
concealed in the hood above,
and only their lower extrem-
ity appears below, the minute
growth near it being one of
the rudiments of two former
stamens which have become
aborted. If we take a flower
from the lower portion of the
cluster (D), we find that the
thread-like pistil has been
elongated nearly a third of
an inch, its forked stigma
now hanging directly at the
threshold of the flower. The
object of this will be clearly
demonstrated if we closely
observe this bee upon the

blossoms. He has now reached the top of the
cluster among the younger blossoms. He creeps
up the outstretched platform of the flower, and
has barely thrust his head within its tube when

122 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

down comes the pair of clappers on his back
(C). Presently he backs out, bearing a generous
dab of yellow pollen, which is further increased
from each subsequent flower. He has now fin-
ished this cluster, and flies to the next, alight-
ing as usual on the lowermost tier of bloom. In
them the elongated stigma now hangs directly
in his path, and comes in contact with the pollen
on his back as the insect sips the nectar. Cross-
fertilization is thus insured; and, moreover, cross-
fertilization not only from a distinct flower, but
from a separate cluster, or even a separate plant.
For in these older stigmatic flowers the anther as
it comes down upon his back is seen to be with-
ered, having shed its pollen several days since, the
supply of pollen on the bee's body being suffi-
cient to fertilize all the stigmas in the cluster,
until a new supply is obtained from the pollen-
bearing blossoms above. And thus he continues
his rounds.

The sage is a representative of the large botan-
ical order known as the* Mint family, the labiates,
or gaping two -lipped flowers, the arched hood
here answering to the upper lip, the spreading
base forming the lower lip, which is usually de-
signed as a convenient threshold for the insects
while sipping the nectar deep within the tube.

THE WELCOMES OF THE FLOWERS 1 23

This mechanism of the sage is but one of many
curious and various contrivances in the Mint fam-
ily, all designed for the same end, the intercross-
ing of the flowers.

While each family of plants is apt to favor
some particular general plan, the modifications in
the various species seem almost without limit.

Let us now look at the Heath family. The
family of the heath, cranberry, pyrola, Andromeda,
and mountain-laurel — how do these blossoms wel-
come their insect friends? This group is partic-
ularly distinguished by the unusual exception in
the form of its anthers, which open by pores at
their tips, instead of the ordinary side fissures.
Two or three forms of these anthers are shown in
my row of stamens (Fig. i).

Seen thus in their detached condition, how in-
comprehensible and grotesque do they appear!
And yet, when viewed at home, in their bell-
shaped corollas, their hospitable expression and
greeting are seen to be quite as expressive and
rational as those of the sage. Take the moun-
tain-laurel, for instance; what a singular exhibition
is this which we may observe on any twilight
evening in the laurel copse, the dense clusters of
pink-white bloom waited upon by soft-winged flut-
tering moths, and ever and anon celebrating its

124

MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

cordial spirit by a mimic display of pyrotechnics as
the anthers hurl aloft their tiny showers of pollen !
Every one is familiar with the curious construc-
tion of this flower, with its ten radiating stamens,
each with its anther snugly tucked away in a

pouch at the rim of
its saucer-shaped co-
rolla. Thus they ap-
pear in the freshly
opened flower, and
thus will they re-
main and wither if
the flower is brought
in-doors and placed
in a vase upon our mantel. Why? Because the
hope of the blossoms life is not fulfilled in these
artificial conditions ; its natural counterpart, the
insect, has failed to respond to its summons.

But the twilight cluster in the woods may tell
us a pretty story.

Here a tiny moth hovers above the tempting
chalice, and now settles upon it with eager tongue
extended for the nectar at its centre. What an
immediate and expressive welcome ! No sooner
has this little feathery body touched the filaments
than the eager anthers are released from their
pockets, and, springing inwards, clasp their little

THE WELCOMES OF THE FLOWERS

125

visitor, at the same time decorating him with
their compliments of webby pollen (A, Fig. 5).

The nectary now drained of its sweets, the
moth creeps or nutters to a second blossom, and
its pollen -dusted body thus coming in contact
with its stigma, cross-fertilization is accomplished.

Fig. 5

The pollen of the laurel differs from that of most
of the Heath blooms, its grains being more or less
adherent by a cobwebby connective which per-
meates the mass as indicated in my magnified
representation (B, Fig. 5).

It is probable that an accessory cross-fertiliza-
tion frequently results from a mass of the pollen
falling directly upon the stigma of a neighboring
blossom, or even upon its own stigma, but even in

126 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

the latter case, as has been absolutely demon-
strated as a general law by the experiments of
Darwin, the pollen from a separate flower is al-
most invariably prepotent, and leads to the most
perfect fruition, and thus to the survival of the
fittest — the cross-fertilized. And, in any event,
the insect is to be credited for the release of the
tiny catapults by which the pollen is discharged.
But the laurel may be considered as an excep-
tional example of the Heath family. Let us look
at a more perfect type of the order to which it
belongs, the globular blossom of the Andromeda
(A. ligtis/riua).

Only a short walk from my studio door in the
country I recently observed its singular reception
to the tiny black-and-white banded bee, which
seems to be its especial companion, none the less
constant and forgiving in spite of a hospitality
which, from the human stand-point, would certain-
ly seem rather discouraging. Fancy a morning
call upon your particular friend. You knock at
the door, and are immediately greeted at the
threshold with a quart of sulphur thrown into
your face. Yet this is precisely the experience of
this patient little insect, which manifests no dispo-
sition to retaliate with the concealed weapon
which on much less provocation he is quick to

THE WELCOMES OF THE FLOWERS

127

$ \

employ. Here he comes,
eager for the fray. He
alights upon one of the
tiny bells scarce half the size of
his body. Creeping down be-
neath it, he inserts his tongue
into the narrowed opening. In-
stantly a copious shower of dust
is poured down upon his face and body. But he
has been used to it all his life, and by heredity
he knows that this is Andromeda's peculiar whim,
and is content to humor it for the sweet recom-
pense which she bestows. The nectar drained, the
insect, as dusty as a miller, visits another flower,
but before he enters must of necessity first pay his
toll of pollen to the drooping stigma which barely

128

MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

protrudes beneath the blossom's throat, and the
expectant seed - pod above welcomes the good
tidings with visions of fruition.

And how beautiful is the minute mechanical
adaptation by which this end is accomplished !

.-^fe

**•'.

1 -&sfr* SH5*^

, «*

H M

% i i ■■■"

Fig 6

This species of Andromeda is a shrub of about
four feet in height, its blossoms being borne in
close panicled clusters at the summit of the
branches. The individual flower is hardly more
than an eighth of an inch in diameter. From
one of three blossoms I made the accompanying
series of three sectional drawings (Fig. 6). The
first shows the remarkable interior arrangement
of the ten stamens surrounding the pistil. The

THE WELCOMES OF THE FLOWERS I 2Q

second presents a sectional view of these stamens,
showing their peculiar S -shaped filaments and
ring of anthers — one of the latter being shown
separate at the right, with its two pores and ex-
posed pollen. The freshly opened blossom dis-
closes the entire ring of anthers in perfect equilib-
rium, each with its two orifices closed by close
contact with the style, thus retaining the pollen.
It will readily be seen that an insects tongue, as
indicated by the needle, in probing between them
in search for nectar, must needs dislocate one or
more of the anthers, and thus release their dusty
contents, while the position of the stigma below is
such as to escape all contact.

In most flowers, with the exception of the or-
chids, the stamens and pollen are plainly visible;
but who ever sees the anthers of the blue-flao-?
Surely none but the analytical botanist and the
companion insect to whom it is so artfully ad-
justed and so demonstrative. This insect is like-
ly to be either a bumblebee or a species of large
fly. In apt illustration of Sprengel's theory of
the "path-finder" or honey-guide, the insect does
not alight at the centre of the flower, but upon
one of the three large drooping sepals, whose
veins, converging to the narrow trough above, in-
dicate the path to the nectar. Closely overarch-

ing this portion is
a long and narrow
curved roof — one
of three divisions
to the style, each
surmounting its
veined sepals. Beneath this our visiting bee dis-
appears, and a glance at my sectional drawing
shows what happens. Concealed within, against
the ridge-pole, as it were, the anther awaits his
coming, and in his passage to and from the nec-
tar below spreads its pollen over his head and

THE WELCOMES OF THE FLOWERS I 3 1

back. Having backed out of this segment of the
blossom (A, Fig. 7), he proceeds to the next; but
the shelf-like stigma awaits him at the door, and
scrapes off or rubs off a few grains of the pollen

Fig. 7

from his back (B). Thus he continues until the
third segment is reached, from which he carries
away a fresh load of pollen to another flower. It
will be seen that only the outer side of this ap-
pendage is stigmatic, and that it is thus naturally
impossible for the blue-flag to self-fertilize — only

132 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

one instance of thousands in which the anther
and stigma, though placed in the closest prox-
imity, and apparently even in contact — seem-
ingly with the design of self-fertilization — are
actually more perfectly separated functionally
than if in separate flowers, the insect alone con-
summating their affinity.

In some flowers this sepa-
ration is effected, as I have
shown, by their maturing at
different periods ; in others, as
in the iris, by mere mechani-
cal means; while in a long list
4g of plants, as in the willow, pop-

lar, hemp, oak, and nettle, the
cross-fertilization is
absolutely necessi-
tated by the fact of
the staminate and
stigmatic flowers be-
ing either separated
on the same stalk or
011 different plants,
the pollen being car-
ried by insects or the
wind. We may see
a pretty illustration

of this in the little
wild flower known
as the devil's-bit
(C/ia mceliriu m hi teti m),
whose long, white, ta-
pering spire of feath- ^
ery bloom may often ^~-s
be seen rising above /^
the sedges in the
swamp. Two years
ago I chanced upon
a little colony of four or five
plants at the edge of a bog.
The flowers, all of them, were
mere petals and stamens (B, Fig.
8). I looked in vain for a single
stigmatic plant or flower; but far
across the swamp, a thousand feet

:£

MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

distant, I at length discovered a single spire, com-
posed entirely of pistillate flowers, as shown in
A (Fig. 8), and my magnifying -glass clearly re-
vealed the pollen upon their stigmas — doubtless a
welcome message brought from the isolated affin-
ity afar by some winged sponsor, to whom the
peculiar fragrance of the flower offers a special

attraction, and thus to whom the fortunes of the
devil's-bit have been committed.

The presence of fragrance and hone)' in a dioe-
cious flower may be accepted in the abstract as
almost conclusive of an insect affinity, as in most
flowers of this class, notably the beech, pine, dock,
grasses, etc., the wind is the fertilizing agent, and
there is absence alike of conspicuous color, fra-
grance, and nectar — attributes which refer alone
to insects, or possibly humming-birds in certain
species.

Look where we will among
the blossoms, we find the
same beautiful plan of in-
tercommunion and reciproc-
ity everywhere demonstrated.
The means appear without lim-
it in their evolved — rather, I
should say, involved— ingenuity.
Pluck the first flower that you
meet in your stroll to-morrow,
and it will tell you a new story.

Only a few days since, while out on a drive, I
passed a luxuriant clump of the plant known as

136

MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

" horse - balm." I had known it all my life, and
twenty years previously had made a careful ana-
lytical drawing of the mere botanical specimen.
What could it say to me now in my more ques-
tioning mood? Its queer little yellow -fringed
flowers hung in profusion from their spreading
terminal racemes. I recalled their singular shape,

Fig. q

and the two out - stretched stamens protruding
from their gaping corolla, and could distinctly
see them as I sat in the carriage. I had never
chanced to read of this flower in the literature
of cross -fertilization, and murmuring, half aloud,
" What pretty mystery is yours, my Collinsonia ?"
prepared to investigate.

What I observed is pictured severally at Fig. 9,

THE WELCOMES OF THE FLOWERS

137

the flowers being shown from above, showing the
two spreading stamens and the decidedly excep-
tional unsymmetrical position of the long style
extending to the side. A small
nectar-seeking bumblebee had
approached, and in alighting
upon the fringed platform
grasped the filaments for sup-
port, and thus clapped the pollen
against his sides. Rea-
soning from analogy, it
would of course be abso-
lutely clear that this pol-
len has thus been depos-
ited where it will come in
contact with the stigma
of another flower. So,
of course, it proved. In
the bee's continual visits
to the several flowers he
came at length to the younger
blooms, where the forked sti;
mas were turned directly to the
front, while the immature sta-
mens were still curled up in the flower tubes. Even
the unopened buds showed a number of species
where the early matured stigma actually protruded

«■?

I38 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

through a tiny orifice in precisely the right posi-
tion to strike the pollen-dusted body of the bee, as
he forced his tongue through the tiny aperture.*

If their dainty mechanism excite our wonder,
what shall be said of the revelations in the great
order of the Composite, where each so-called
flower, as in the dandelion, daisy, cone-flower, mari-
gold, is really a dense cluster of minute flowers,
each as perfect in its construction as in the exam-
ples already mentioned, each with its own pecul-
iar plan designed to insure the transfer of its own
pollen to the stigma of its neighbor, while exclud-
ing it from its own ?

All summer long- the cone - flower, Fig. 10
{Rudbcckia hirta), blooms in our fields, but how
few of us imagine the strange processes which
are being enacted in that purple cone ! Let us
examine it closely. If we pluck one of the
blossom's heads and keep it in a vase over-
night, we shall probably see on the following
morning a tiny yellow ring of pollen encircling
the outer edge of the cone. In this way only

* In numerous instances observed since the above was writ-
ten I have noted the larger bumblebees upon the blossom.
These insects have a different method of approach, hanging be-
neath the flower, the anthers being clapped against their thorax
at the juncture of the wings, instead of the abdomen, as in the
smaller bee.

THE WELCOMES OF THE FLOWERS 1 39

are we likely to see the ring in its perfection, as in
a state of nature the wind and insects rarely per-
mit it to remain.

If we now with a sharp knife make a vertical

section, as shown at A (Fig. 3), we may observe the
conical receptacle studded with its embryo seeds,
each bearing a tiny tubular blossom. Three dis-
tinct forms of these flowers are to be seen. The
lower and older ones are conspicuous by their
double feathery tails, the next by their extended
anthers bearing the pollen at their extremity,
and above these again the buds in all stages of
growth. These various states are indicated in
Fig. 11.

As in all the Composite, the anthers are here
united in a tube, the pollen being discharged
within. At the base of this anther-tube rises the
pistil, which gradually elongates, and like a piston
forces out the pollen at the top. Small insects in

MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

creeping over the cone quickly dislodge it. In
the next stage the anthers have withered, the
flower -tube elongated, and the top of the two-
parted pistil begins to protrude, and at length ex-
pands its tips, disclosing at the centre the stig-
matic surface, which has until now been protected
by close contact. (See section.)

A glance at Fig. 1 1 will reveal the plan in-

■\ ~ .

volved. The ring of pollen is inevitably scattered
to the stigmas of the neighboring flowers, and
cross -fertilization continually insured. Similar
contrivances are to be found in most of the Com-
posite, through the same method being variously
applied.

Perhaps even more remarkable than any of the

A repre-

THE WELCOMES OF THE FLOWERS 141

foregoing, which are more or less automatic in
their movements, is the truly astonishing and
seemingly conscious mechanism displayed in the
wild arum of Great Britain — the "lords and la-
dies " of the village lanes, the foreign counterpart
of our well-known jack-in-the-pulpit, or Indian-tur-
nip, with its purple -streaked canopy, and sleek
"preacher" standing erect beneath it.
sentation of this arum is shown
in Fig. 12, and a cross section
at A, properly indexed.

How confidently would the
superficial — nay, even careful —
examination of one of the old-
time botanists have interpreted
its structure: " How simple and
perfect the structure ! Observe
how the anthers are placed so
that pollen shall naturally fall directly on the
stigmas and fertilize them!" Such would indeed
appear to be intended, until it is actually dis-
covered that the stigmas have withered when the
pollen is shed — a device which, acting in asso-
ciation with the little ring of hairs, tells a strange
story. It is not my fortune to have seen one
of these singular blossoms, but from the descrip-
tion of the process of fertilization given in Her-

14-

MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

mann Midler's wonderful work, aided by a bo-
tanical illustration of the structure of the flower,
I am readily enabled to picture the progressive
stages of the mechanism.

■/*£
#¥

D
Fig .3

) f

In the first stage (B, Fig. 13) small flies with bod-
ies dusted with pollen from a previous arum blos-
som (for insects, as a rule, remain faithful or partial
to one species of flowers while it is in bloom) are
entering the narrowed tube, easily passing through
the drooping fringe of hairs. Nectar is secreted
by the stigmas, and here the flies assemble, thus
dusting them with pollen. Their appetite tempo-
rarily satisfied, the insects seek escape, but find
their exit effectually barred by the intruding
fringe of hairs (C). In this second stage the stig-

THE WELCOMES OF THE FLOWERS 143

mas, having now been fertilized, have withered, at
the same time exuding a fresh supply of nectar,
which again attracts the flies, whereupon, as
shown at D, the anthers open and discharge
their pollen upon the insects. In the fourth
stage (E), all the functions of the flower having
now been fulfilled, the fringe of hairs withers, and
the imprisoned pollen-laden flies are permitted to
escape to another flower, where the beautiful
scheme is again enacted.

In a paper of this kind it is of course possible
only to hint at a few representative examples of
floral mechanisms, but these would be indeed in-
complete without a closing reference to that won-
derful tribe of flowers with which the theory of
cross -fertilization will ever be memorably asso-
ciated. I have previously alluded to the absolute
dependence of the red clover upon the bumble-
bee. This instance may be considered somewhat
exceptional, though numerous parallel cases are
known. Among ordinary flowers this interven-
tion of the insect is largely a preferable intention,
and though almost invariably fulfilled, a large pro-
portion of flowers still retain, as a dernier ressort,
the power of at least partial self-fertilization and
perpetuity in the absence or neglect of their in-
sect counterpart.

144 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

The numerous and conclusive demonstrations
of Darwin, however, have proved that in the com-
petition for existence such self-fertilized offspring
quickly yield before the progeny of cross -fertili-
zation.

But the distinctive feature of the orchids lies in
the fact that this dependence on the insect is
wellnigh universally absolute. Here are a great
host of plants which are doomed to extinction if
for any reason their insect sponsors should per-
manently neglect them. The principal botanical
feature which differentiates the orchid from other
plants lies in the construction of the floral organs,
the pistil, stigma, and anthers here being united
into a distinct part known as the column. The
pollen is, moreover, peculiar, being collected into
more or less compact masses, and variously con-
cealed in the flower. Some of these are club-
shaped, with a viscid extremity, others of the con-
sistency of a sticking-plaster, and all are hidden
from external view in pouches and pockets, from
which they never emerge unless withdrawn on
the body of an insect. The various devices by
which this removal is insured are most astonish-
ing and awe-inspiring. Nor is it necessary to go
to the conservatory for a tropical specimen, as is
commonly supposed. An orchid is an orchid

THE WELCOMES OF THE FLOWERS 345

wherever it grows, and our native list of some
fifty species will afford examples of as strange
mechanical adaptations as are to be found among
Darwin's pages. Indeed, a few of our American
species are there described. One example will
suffice for present illustration — the sweet-pogonia
or grass-pink of our sedgy swamps (Pogonia ophi-
oglossoides). Its solitary rosy blossom, nodding
on its slender stem above the sedges, is always a
welcome episode to the sauntering botanist, and
its perfume, suggesting
ripe red raspberries, is
unique in the wild bou-
quet. One of these flow-
ers is shown in profile at
Fig. 14, its various parts
indexed. Concealed be-
hind the petals is the col-
umn, elsewhere indicated
from various points of
view. Attracted by its

color and fragrance, the insect seeks the flower;
its outstretched fringy lip offers a cordial invi-
tation at its threshold, and conducts its visitor
directly to the sweets above. In his entrance,
as seen at D (Fig. 15), the narrowed passage
compresses his back against the underside of the

146

MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

column, forcing his head and back against the
stigma. The effect of this inward pressure, as
will be seen, only serves to force the anther more
firmly within its pocket; but as the insect, hav-
ing drained the nectar, now backs out, note the
result. The lip of the anther catches upon the
back, swings outward on its hinge, and deposits

Fig. 15

its sticky pollen all over the insect's back, return-
ing to its original position after his departure. In
another moment he is seen upon another blos-
som, as at D again, his pollen -laden back now
coming in contact with the stigma, and the in-
tention of the blossom is accomplished ; for with-
out this assistance from the insect the little lid

THE WELCOMES OF THE FLOWERS 1 47

remains close within its pocket, and the pollen
is thus retained.

What startling disclosures are revealed to the
inward eye within the hearts of all these strange
orchidaceous flowers! Blossoms whose functions,
through long eras of adaptation, have gradually
shaped themselves to the forms of certain chosen
insect sponsors; blossoms whose chalices are lit-
erally fashioned to bees or butterflies ; blossoms
whose slender, prolonged nectaries invite and re-
ward the murmuring sphinx-moth alone, the floral
throat closely embracing his head while it at-
taches its pollen masses to the bulging eyes, or
perchance to the capillary tongue! And thus in
endless modifications, evidences all of the same
deep vital purpose.

Let us then content ourselves no longer with
being mere " botanists " — historians of structural
facts. The flowers are not mere comely or curi-
ous vegetable creations, with colors, odors, petals,
stamens, and innumerable technical attributes.
The wonted insight alike of scientist, philosopher,
theologian, and dreamer is now repudiated in the
new revelation. Beauty is not "its own excuse
for being," nor was fragrance ever " wasted on the
desert air." The seer has at last heard and inter-
preted the voice in the wilderness. The flower is

148 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

no longer a simple passive victim in the busy
bee's sweet pillage, but rather a conscious be-
ing, with hopes, aspirations, and companionships.
The insect is its counterpart. Its fragrance is
but a perfumed whisper of welcome, its color is as
the wooing blush and rosy lip, its portals are
decked for his coming, and its sweet hospitali-
ties humored to his tarrying; and as it finally
speeds its parting affinity rests content that its
life's consummation has been fulfilled.

A HONEY-DEW PICNIC

EVERAL of our notable as well
h as notorious human, social, and
r6 civic customs find their prehis-
toric prototypes in the insect
kingdom. The monarchical in-
stitution sees its singular proph-
ecy in the domestic economy of
the bees. War and slavery have
always been carried on system-
atically and effectually by ants, and, according to
Huber and other authorities, agriculture, gardening,
and an industry very like dairy farming have been
time -honored customs among this same wise and

152 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

thrifty insect tribe, whose claims to thoughtful con-
sideration were so long ago voiced by Solomon of
proverbial fame. Thevenot mentions "Solomon's
ant" as among the "beasts which shall enter para-
dise." Indeed, the human saint as well as slug-
gard may "go to the ant" for many suggestive
hints and commentaries.

These are only a few of the more notable par-
allelisms which suggest themselves. But others
are not wanting if we care to follow the subject.
In addition to the many models of thrift and vir-
tuous industry, embodying types of many of the
trade employments known to humanity, have we
not also among these "meadow tribes" our luxu-
rious " idlers " and " exquisites," the butterflies
and flower-haunting flies and "dandy" beetles;
and, opposed to all these, the suggestive antithesis
of the promiscuous marauders, thieves, and brig-
ands everywhere interspersed ?

Thus we have our individual insect assassin
and assassination organized in war; so, on the
other hand, have we our insect merrymakers;
why not, then, our picnic or carnival ?

Such I am moved to call the singular episode
which I observed last summer, and which I have
endeavored to picture as true to the life as possi-
ble in the accompanying presentment. The seep-

A HONEY-DEW PiCNIC I 53

tic will perhaps remark on examination that the
scene is characterized by somewhat too free a li-
cense to warrant the ideal of a "picnic." But he
is hypercritical. There are picnics and picnics —
picnics of high and of low degree. Do I not re-
call more than one notorious festive outing of the
"next lower than the angels" in which the personnel
seemed about similarly proportioned, and the fun
and attraction comparatively related to the license?
One July afternoon a year ago I was returning
home from one of my botanizing strolls. I had
just emerged from a deep wood, and was skirting
its border, when my attention was caught by a
small fluttering swarm of butterflies, which started
up at my approach and hovered about a blossom-
ing blackberry bush a few yards in advance of
me at the side of my path. The diversity of the
butterfly species in the swarm struck me as sin-
gular, and the mere allurement of the blackberry
blossoms — not usually of especial attraction to
butterflies — could hardly explain so extensive a
gathering. Here was the great yellow swallow-
tail (Turnus), red admiral {Atlanta), small yellow
butterfly [Pkilodice), white cabbage-butterfly, com-
ma and semicolon, and numerous small fry, flutter-
ing about me in evident protest against my intru-
sion. They showed no inclination to vacate the

154 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

premises, so, in pursuance of one of the first arti-
cles of my saunterer's creed, I concluded to retreat
softly a few paces and watch for developments.
One by one the swarm sought their original
haunt, settling on the bramble, and I now noticed
that only in occasional instances did the insects
seek the flowers, the attraction seeming to be
confined to the leaves. T stole up softly for a
nearer point of observation, and could now dis-
tinctly see the beautiful yellow and black open
wings of the swallow-tail softly gliding or gently
fluttering as it hung from the edge of a leaf,
while it explored its surface with its uncoiled ca-
pillary tongue. Just beyond my Turnus, on an-
other leaf, I now noted a new presence, the orange
Aphrodite butterfly, silvery spotted, its nether
wings being folded over its back, too much ab-
sorbed to have been startled by my first approach.
Occasionally, without any cause which I could de-
tect from my present position — certainly in no
way connected with my presence — a small swarm
of the butterflies would rise in a flutter above the
bush, as though actuated by a common whim— a
brief winged tangle in which a beautiful sprite of
velvety black hovering in a globular halo, shot
through with two white semicircular arcs, was al-
ways a momentary feature.

A HONEY-DEW PICNIC I 55

Carefully stealing through the tall grass, I now
approached to within touching distance of the
haunt, and was soon lost in mingled wonder,
amusement, and surprise at the picnic now dis-
closed, the occasional butterfly swarm being now
easily explained. From my first point of view
only the top of the bramble spray was visible
above the grass, and by far the most interesting
portion of the exercises had been concealed from
view. The butterflies, while naturally the most
conspicuous element, were now seen to be in a
small minority among the insect gathering, the
bramble leaves being peopled with a most motley
and democratic assemblage of insects. Class dis-
tinctions were apparently forgotten in the com-
mon enthusiasm ; the plebeian bluebottle and
blowfly now consorted with Aphrodite and sipped
at the same drop. Many a leaf was begemmed
with the blue bodies closely set side by side or
in a close cluster. The meat-fly, house-fly, and
horse-fly made themselves promiscuous in every
portion of the spray, and what with the rainbow-
eyed and ruby-eyed flies, black and silver-banded
flower -flies, and other tiny, restless, iridescent
atoms of the fly fraternity, the family of Musca
was well represented at the feast. ;

Nor were these all the guests at the banquet —

156 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

for banquet there certainly was, judging from the
eager sipping and crowding everywhere upon the
leaves, the flowers even yet, as I first noticed,
seeming to have little attraction.

I have no direct means of knowing as to the
social discrimination of the host as shown in the
entertainment, for that invitations were issued the
subsequent facts would show. But I have good
reasons for believing, from the course of events,
that the gathering included a number of question-
able personages that were not counted upon.

Here, for instance, was an overwhelming con-
tingent of the whole tough gang of wasps and
hornets— brown wasps from under the eaves and
fences; black hornets from the big paper nests;
yellow-jackets from where you please; deep steel-
blue wire-waisted wasps from the mud cells in the
garret, to say nothing of an occasional longer-
waisted digger-wasp, and a host of their allied
lesser associates scattered around generously
among the assemblage.

Every now and then a big darning-needle took
a shimmering circuit about the bush, and doubt-
less knew what he was about; as did also what at
first glimpse appeared to be a big bumblebee,
which seemed to find attraction in the neigh-
borhood, although he seldom alighted upon the

A HONEY-DEW PICNIC 157

leaves, preferring to sit upon a neighboring weed
and watch his opportunities.

I have thus described a few of the more promi-
nent guests or personages present at the feast.
But I have reported little of their "goings on."
Doubtless there were appropriate toasts and re-
sponses, or what in bug etiquette answered to this
seemingly indispensable human fad, while as to
that other festive social essential of after-dinner
speeches, coupled in this case with most vigorous
discussion, I am certain the air was blue with
something of this sort, if the eloquent pantomime
bore any significance. Here, for instance, is one
isolated, but frequent, episode. A peaceable little
group of plain bluebottle -flies, with but a single
thought, are all sipping at the same drop in con-
tentment. A brief respite, for now the tips of a
pair of inquisitive antennae appear from the under
edge of the leaf upon which they are sipping, and
gingerly explore the upper surface. They are
quickly followed by the covetous almond-eyed
gaze of a brown wasp, that now steals cautiously
around to the upper surface, and appears wholly
engrossed in licking the leaf. Nearer and nearer
he sidles up to the group of flies, and now with
deliberate purpose and open jaws makes a dash
among them. But they are too quick for him,

158 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

and are away in a glittering blue tangle, which
finally concentrates itself upon a neighboring leaf,
where the eager tippling is immediately resumed.
The wasp now holds the fort, and seems in no
mood to be trifled with. With head and fore feet
upraised and open jaws he seems "spoiling for a
fight," and ready to make war upon the first
comer. But no, he is evidently expecting a
friend that, I now observe, approaches him deter-
minedly down the stem of the leaf. The new-
comer, a brown wasp like himself, is now at close
range, and in an instant more, without any visible
courteous preliminaries, the two set upon each
other with a common enthusiasm, and with jaws
working and stings fencing the interlocked com-
batants fall to the ground for a finish. I presume
the affair was carried to the fourteenth round
without any undue interference.

Another and another of these friendly meetings
between them and other wasps took place in the
half-hour in which I watched the sport. There
were lulls in hostilities, during which an atmos-
phere of perfect peace and harmony seemed to
reign around my bramble -bush. The flies were
motionless in their ecstasy, and the hornet ele-
ment seemed by common consent to keep tempo-
rarily shady, and even the butterflies seemed to

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160 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

forget that they had wings. But not for long, for
now with a shimmering glitter our darning-needle
invades the scene, and retires to a convenient
perch with a ruby-eyed fly in his teeth, while a
swarm of very startled butterflies tells conspicu-
ously of the demoralization which he has left in
his path. Among the butterfly representatives I
at length observed one individual which at first
had escaped me, an exclusive white cabbage-but-
terfly which sipped quietly at his leaf in the
shade, and seemed to take little interest in the
disreputable actions of his associates. Nothing
could move him or entice him away from his
convivial employment. But, alas ! his folly soon
found him out, for, on happening to look again, I
observed he had found a new acquaintance — a
hornet that had evidently been long desirous of
meeting him. One by one I saw my butterfly's
dismembered wings fall to the grassy jungle be-
low, while a big black wasp proceeded to enjoy
the collected sweets which he had doubtless ob-
served were being so carefully stored away there
in the shady retreat.

And now my pretty black butterfly — no, it
proved to be the little day-flying grape-vine-moth,
the eight-spotted black Alypia — appeared from
some unseen source, and spun his crapy white-

A HONEY-DEW PICNIC l6l

streaked halo among the leaves, at length settling
among a little company of flies. Softly behind
him creeps a brown wasp {Polistes), with his
mouth watering, while from the opposite quarter
a steel-blue mud-wasp approaches, with apparently
similar designs. Neither invader sees the other.
Simultaneously, as though answering to a signal,
the two make a dash at the moth ; but he is too
quick for them. In a twinkling he is off in his
pretty halo again, while the two disappointed con-
testants have clinched, and with stings and jaws
vigorously plying fall to the jungle below, and
seek satisfaction in mortal combat.

Here is a pretty little yellow and black banded
flower-fly, which is having a quiet little picnic all
by himself on a bed of yarrow bloom close by.
But a big black paper-hornet has suddenly seen
an attraction hither also, and is soon creeping
stealthily among the blossoms with a wild and
hungry look. But the hornets seemed to waste
their time on the flies. Seemingly confident in
their less complicated wing machinery, the two-
winged fly rarely sought escape until within very
close range of his enemy, and his resources never
seemed to disappoint him at the critical moment.

Among the insect assemblage was a large num-
ber of ants of all kinds and sizes, the common

l62 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

large black species being conspicuous. Here is
one creeping and sipping along a grass stem. A
small digger-wasp likes this grass stem too, but
instead of exchanging courtesies on the subject,
the wasp proceeds to bite the ant's head off with-
out ceremony, and continues sipping at the stem
as though decapitation were a mere casual inci-
dent in its daily walk.

On the same stem a big blowfly has alighted.
Judging from appearances, he has had his fill of
good things, and is now making his leisurely toi-
let in the peculiar fashion of his kind, rubbing
down his back and wings with his hind legs, twist-
ing his front feet into spirals, and ever and anon
testing the strength of his elastic neck attach-
ment as he threatens to pull his head from his
body.

This worldly act has been progressing for some
moments under the gaze of a big black digger-
wasp, who now concludes to cut it short. When
at close range with his prey, the fly suddenly dis-
covers the unhealthy location which he occupies,
and actually protruding his tongue by way of
parting salute, he is off with a buzz. He has
barely taken wing, however, when a still louder
buzz is heard, while a great black bumblebee fol-
lows closely in his wake, until the sounds of both

A HONEY-DEW PICNIC 1 63

are lost in the distance. The hum of this bum-
blebee is a frequent musical feature of the enter-
tainment, and many is the dance that is set to its
minstrelsy, as the burly insect darts in among the
merrymakers and is off to his perch near by. It
is only as we steal away and observe him closely
that we learn the secret of his occasional sorties.
There on a clover blossom he sits — sipping hon-
ey ? Oh no. It is honey-dew that he is enjoy-
ing, and second-hand at that, as he devours the
satiated bluebottle-fly which is empaled on his
black horny beak. For this is only a bumblebee
in masquerade — a carnivorous fly, in truth, which,
safe in its disguise of respectability, hovers in the
flowery haunts of the innocents and, of course,
reaps his reward.

And what is this ? A yellow-jacket has found
an ambrosial attraction here upon the bramble
leaf. Meanwhile a great black and white paper-
hornet has seen his opportunity, and is soon slyly
approaching behind the sipper. That he has de-
signs on that jacket and its contents is apparent.
In a moment the onslaught is consummated, and
in the struggle which ensues the black assailant
relieves his victim — of his watch presumably, for
he has captured the entire garment, which he soon
rifles and discards with some show of satisfaction.

^4 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

And so my carnival proceeds. So it began
with the dawn; so it will continue till dusk; and
through the night, with new revels, for aught I
know, and will be prolonged for clays or weeks.

Reflective reader, how often, as you have
strolled through some nook in the suburban
wood, have you paused in philosophic mood at
the motley relics of good cheer which sophisti-
cated the retreat, so pathetically eloquent of pris-
tine joys to which you had been a stranger?
Here in my present picnic is the suggestive par-
allel, for even though no such actual episodes as
those I have described had been witnessed by
me, an examination of the premises beneath my
bramble were a sufficient commentary. These
were the unimpeachable witnesses of the pleas-
ures which I have pictured. Dismembered but-
terfly wings strewed the grassy jungle, among
which were a fair sprinkling from that black and
white halo already noted. Occasional dead wasps
and detached members of wasp and hornet anato-
my were frequent, while the blue glitter of the
bodies of flies lit up a shadowy recess here and
there, showing that Musca had not always so cor-
rectly gauged his comparative wing resources as
my observation had indicated.

A HONEY-DEW PICNIC l6$

It was interesting to discover, too, clown deep
among the herbage, another suggestive fact in the
presence of a shrewd spider that showed a keen
eye to the main chance, and had spread his gos-
samer catch-all beneath the bramble. It was all
grist into his mill, and no doubt his charnel-house
at the base of his silken tunnel could have borne
eloquent testimony alike to his wise sagacity and
his epicurean luxury.

I have pictured my picnic, and the question
naturally arises, what was it all about — what the
occasion for this celebration ? There was cer-
tainly no distinct visible cause for the social gath-
ering upon this particular bramble -bush. There
were a number of other bramble- bushes in the
near neighborhood which, it would seem, should
possess equal attractions, but which were ignored.
In what respect did the one selected differ from
the others ?

This bramble had become the scene of my car-
nival simply because it chanced to be directly be-
neath an overhanging branch of pine some twen-
ty feet above. Here dwelt mine host who had
issued the invitations and spread the feast, the
limb for about a foot space being surrounded by
a colony of aphides, or plant-lice, from, whose dis-
tilling pipes the rain of sweet honey -dew had

l66 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

fallen ceaselessly upon the leaves below. The
flies, butterflies, and ants had been attracted, as
always, by its sweets ; the preoccupied convivial
flies, in turn, were a tempting bait for the wasps
and hornets, and my dragonfly and mock bumble-
bee found a similar attraction in the neighbor-
hood.

An examination of the trunk of the pine
showed the inevitable double procession of ants,
both up and down the tree, with the habitual in-
terchange of comment; and could we but have
obtained a closer glimpse of the pine branch
above, we might certainly have observed the
queer spectacle of the small army of ants inter-
spersed everywhere among the swarm of aphides.
Not in antagonism ; indeed, quite the reverse ;
herders, in truth, jealously guarding their feeding
flock, creeping among them with careful tread,
caressing them with their antennas while they
sipped at the honeyed pipes everywhere upraised
in most expressive and harmonious welcome.

This intimate and friendly association of the
ants and aphides has been the subject of much
interesting scientific investigation and surprising
discovery. Huber and Lubbock have given to
the world many startling facts, the significance of
which may be gathered from the one statement

A HONEY-DEW PICNIC

167

that certain species of ants carry their devotion
so far as literally to cultivate the aphides, carrying
them bodily into their tunnels, where they are
placed in underground pens, reared and fed and
utilized in a manner which might well serve as a
pattern for the modern dairy farm. Indeed, after
all that we have already seen upon a single bram-
ble-bush, would it be taking too much license
with fact to add one more pictorial chronicle — an
exhilarated and promiscuous group of butterflies,
ants, hornets, wasps, and flies uniting in " a health
to the jolly aphis "?

A FEW NATIVE ORCHIDS AND
THEIR INSECT SPONSORS

A Few
Native Orchids

and Their
Insect Sponsors

IN a previous article I discussed the general
subject of the fertilization of flowers, briefly
outlining the several historical and chronolog-
ical steps which ultimately led to Darwin's tri-
umphant revelation of the divine plan of "cross-
fertilization " as the mystery which had so long
been hidden beneath the forms and faces of the
flowers.

In the same paper I presented many illustra-

172 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

tive examples among our common wild flowers
possessing marvellous evolved devices, mechan-
isms, and peculiarities of form by which this nec-
essary cross-fertilization was assured.

Prior to Darwin's time the flower was a voice
in the wilderness, heard only in faintest whispers,
and by the few. But since his day they have
bloomed with fresher color and more convinc-
ing perfume. Science brought us their message.
Demoralizing as it certainly was to humanity's
past ideals, philosophic, theologic, and poetic, it
bore the spirit of absolute conviction, and must
be heard.

What a contrast this winged botany of to-day
to that of a hundred years ago! The flower now
no longer the mere non-committal, structural,
botanical specimen. No longer the example of
mere arbitrary, independent creation, reverently
and solely referred to the orthodox " delight of
man." The blossom whose unhappy fate was be-
moaned by the poet because, forsooth, it must
needs " blush unseen," or " waste its sweetness on
the desert air," is found alone in that musty hor-
tus siccus of a blind and deluded past. From the
status of mere arbitrary creation, however " beau-
tiful," "curious," "eccentric," hitherto accepted
alone on faith — "it is thus because it is created

A FEW NATIVE ORCHIDS 1 73

thus: what need to ask the reason why?" — it has
become a part of our inspiring heritage, a reason-
able, logical, comprehensible result, a manifesta-
tion of a beautiful divine scheme, and is thus an
ever-present witness and prophet of divine care
and supervision.

The flower of to-day ! What an inspiration to
our reverential study ! What a new revelation is
borne upon its perfume! Its forms and hues,
what invitations to our devotion! This spot
upon the petal ; this peculiar quality of perfume
or odor; this fringe within the throat; this curv-
ing stamen ; this slender tube ! What a cate-
chism to one who knows that each and all repre-
sent an affinity to some insect, towards whose
vital companionship the flower has been adapting
itself through the ages, looking to its own more
certain perpetuation !

The great Linnaeus would doubtless have
claimed to "know" the "orchid," which perhaps
he named. Indeed, did he not "know" it to the
core of its physical, if not of its physiological, be-
ing? But could he have solved the riddle of the
orchid's persistent refusal to set a pod in the
conservatory? Could he have divined why the
orchid blossom continues in bloom for weeks and
weeks in this artificial glazed tropic — perhaps

174 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

weeks longer than its more fortunate fellows left
behind in their native haunts — and then only to
wither and perish without requital ? Know the
orchid ? — without the faintest idea of the veritable
divorce which its kidnapping had involved !

Thanks to the new dispensation, we may in-
deed claim a deeper sympathy with the flower
than is implied in a mere recognition of its pretty
face. We know that this orchid is but the half of
itself, as it were; that its color, its form, however
eccentric and incomprehensible, its twisted in-
verted position on its individual stalk -like ovary,
its slender nectary, its carefully concealed pollen —
all are anticipations of an insect complement, a
long-tongued night-moth perhaps, with whose life
its own is mysteriously linked through the sweet
bond of perfume and nectar, and in the sole hope
of posterity.

And the flower had been stolen from its haunt
while its consort slept, and had awakened in a
glazed prison — doubtless sufficiently comfortable,
save for the absence of that one indispensable
counterpart, towards whom we behold in the blos-
som's very being the embodied expression of wel-
come.

Blooming day after day in anticipation of his
coming, and week after week still hoping against

A FEW NATIVE ORCHIDS 175

hope, we see the flower fade upon its stalk, and
with what one might verily believe to be evi-
dences of disconsolation, were it not that the
ultra -scientist objects to such a sentimental as-
sumption with regard to a flower, which is un-
fortunate enough to show no sign of nerves or
gray matter in its composition. Who shall claim
to know his orchid who knows not its insect
sponsor ?

To take one of our own wild species. Here is
the Arethnsa bulbosa of Linnaeus, for instance.
Its pollen must reach its stigma — so he supposed
— in order for the flower to become fruitful. But
this is clearly impossible, as the pollen never
leaves its tightly closed box unless removed by
outside aid, which aid must also be required to
place it upon the stigma. This problem, which
confronted him in practically every orchid he met,
Linnaeus, nor none of his contemporaries, nor in-
deed his followers for many years, ever solved.

Not until the time of Christian Conrad Spren-
gel (1735) did this and other similar riddles begin
to be cleared up, that distinguished observer hav-
ing been the first to discover in the honey-sip-
ping insect the key to the omnipresent mystery.
Many flowers, he discovered, were so constructed
pr so planned that their pollen could not reach

176 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

their own stigmas, as previously believed. The
insect, according to Sprengel, enjoyed the anoma-
lous distinction of having been called in, in the
emergency, to fulfil this apparent default in the
plain intentions of nature, as shown in the flower.
Attracted by the color and fragrance of the blos-
som, with their implied invitation to the assured
feast of nectar, the insect visited the flower, and
thus became dusted with the pollen, and in creep-
ing or flying out from it conveyed the fecundat-
ing grains to the receptive stigma, which they
could not otherwise reach. Such was Sprengel's
belief, which he endeavored to substantiate in an
exhaustive volume containing the result of his ob-
servations pursuant to this theory.

But Sprengel had divined but half the truth.
The insect was necessary, it was true, but the
Sprengel idea was concerned only with the indi-
vidual flower, and the great botanist was soon
perplexed and confounded by an opposing array
of facts which completely destroyed the authority
of his work — facts which showed conclusively
that the insect could not thus convey the pollen
as described, because the stigma in the flower was
either not yet ready to receive it — perhaps tightly
closed against it — or was past its receptive period,
even decidedly withered.

: .

/ I

' "l

i;8 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

This radical assumption of fertilization in the
individual flower, which lay at the base of Spren-
gel's theory, thus so completely exposed as false,
discredited his entire work. The good was con-
demned with the bad, and the noble volume was
lost in comparative oblivion — only to be finally
resurrected and its full value and significance re-
vealed by the keen scientific insight of Darwin
(1859). From the new stand -point of evolution
through natural selection the facts in Sprengels
work took on a most important significance.
Darwin now reaffirmed the Sprengel theory so
far as the necessity of the insect was concerned,
but showed that all those perplexing floral condi-
tions which had disproved Sprengels assumption,
instead of having for their object the conveying
of pollen to the stigma of the same flower, implied
its transfer to the stigma of another, cross -fertili-
zation being the evident design, or evolved and
perpetuated advantage.

This solution was made logical and tenable
only on the assumption that such evolved con-
ditions, insuring cross -fertilization, were of dis-
tinct advantage to the flower in the competitive
struggle for existence, and that all cross - fertil-
ized flowers were thus the final result of natural
selection.

A FEW NATIVE ORCHIDS 1 79

The early ancestors of this flower were self-
fertilized ; a chance seedling at length, among
other continual variations, showed the singular
variation of ripening its stigma in advance of its
pollen — or other condition insuring cross-fertiliza-
tion— thus acquiring a strain of fresh vigor. The
seedlings of this flower, coming now into compe-
tition with the existing weaker self -fertilized
forms, by the increased vigor won in the struggle
of their immediate surroundings, and inheriting
the peculiarity of their parent, showed flowers
possessing the same cross-fertilizing device. The
seeds from these, again scattering, continued the
unequal struggle in a larger and larger field and
in increasing numbers, continually crowding out
all their less vigorous competitors of the same
species, at length to become entire masters of the
field and the only representatives left to perpetu-
ate the line of descent.

Thus we find in almost every flower we meet
some astonishing development by which this
cross -fertilization is effected, by which the trans-
ferrence of the pollen from one flower to the stig-
ma of another is assured, largely through the
agency of insects, frequently by the wind and
water, occasionally by birds. In many cases this
is assured by the pollen -bearing flowers and stig-

I So MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

matic flowers being entirely distinct, as in cucum-
bers and Indian-corn; perhaps on different plants,
as in the palms and willows; again by the pollen
maturing and disseminating before the stigma is
mature, as already mentioned, and vice versa.

From these, the simplest forms, we pass on to
more and more complicated conditions, anomalies
of form and structure — devices, mechanisms, that
are past belief did we not observe them in actual-
ity with our own eyes, as well as the absolutely
convincing demonstration of the intention em-
bodied: exploding flowers, shooting flowers, flow-
er-traps, stamen embraces, pollen showers, pollen
plasters, pollen necklaces, and floral pyrotechnics
— all demonstrations in the floral etiquette of wel-
come and an revoir to insects.

From the simplest and regular types of flowers,
as in the buttercup, we pass on to more and more
involved and unsymmetrical forms, as the colum-
b'ne, monk's-hood, larkspur, aristolochia, and thus
finally to the most highly specialized or involved
forms of all, as seen in the orchid— the multifari-
ous, multiversant orchid ; the beautiful orchid; the
ugly orchid; the fragrant orchid; the fetid orchid;
the graceful, homely, grotesque, uncanny, mimetic,
and, until the year 1859, the absolutely non-com-
mittal and inexplicable flower; the blossom which

A FEW NATIVE ORCHIDS iSl

had waited through the ages for Darwin, its
chosen interpreter, ere she yielded her secret to
humanity.

And what is an orchid ? How are we to know
that this blossom which we plucked is an orchid ?
The average reader will exclaim, " Because it is
an air-plant" — the essential requisite, it would
seem, in the popular mind. Of over 3000 known
species of orchids, it is true a great majority are
air-plants, or epiphytes — growing upon trees and
other plants, obtaining their sustenance from the
air, and not truly parasitic; but of the fifty-odd
native species of the northeastern United States,
not one is of this character, all growing in the
ground, like other plants. It is only by the botan-
ical structure of the flowers that the orchid may
be readily distinguished, the epiphytic character
being of little significance botanically.

A brief glance at this structural peculiarity
may properly precede our more elaborate con-
sideration of a few species of these remarkable
flowers.

The orchids are usually very irregular, and six-
parted. The ovary is one -celled, and becomes a
pod containing an enormous yield of minute, al-
most spore-like, seeds (Fig. 3) in some species, as
in the vanilla pod, to the number of a million, and

182

MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

_>7~

in one species of the maxillaria, as lias been care-
fully computed, 1,750,000.

The pollen, unlike ordinary flowers, is gathered
together in waxy masses of varying consistency,
variously formed and disposed in the blossom, its
grains being connected with elastic cobwebby
threads, which occasionally permit the entire mass
to be stretched to four or five times its length,
and recover its original shape when released.
This is noticeable spe-
cially in the O. spcctabi-
lis, later described. The
grains thus united are
readily disentangled from
their mass when brought
into contact with a viscid
object, as, for instance, the

r ig. 1

stigma.

But the most significant botanical contrast and
distinction is found in the union of the style and
stamens in one organ, called the column (Fig. 2),
the stigma and the pollen being thus disposed
upon a single common stalk. The contrast to
the ordinary flower will be readily appreciated
by comparison of the accompanying diagrams
(Fig. 1).

When, therefore, we find a blossom with the

A FEW NATIVE ORCHIDS 183

anthers or pollen receptacle united to a stalk
upon which the stigma is also placed, we have an
orchid.

The order is further remarkable, as Darwin
first demonstrated in his wonderful volume " The

1 4p l.#p%>

Fig. 2

Stigma.

Fertilization of Orchids," in that the entire group,
with very few exceptions, are absolutely depend-
ent upon insects for their perpetuation through
seed. They possess no possible resource for
self-fertilization in the neglect of these insect
sponsors.

Many of our common wild flowers, as perfectly
and effectually planned for cross -fertilization as
the orchids, do retain the reserve power of final
^-fertilization if unfertilized by foreign pollen.

But the orchid has lost such power, and in
the progress of evolution has gradually adapted
itself to the insect, often to a particular species
of insect, its sole sponsor, which natural selec-

^4 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

tion has again gradually modified in relation to
the flower.

The above work by Darwin was mostly con-
cerned with foreign species, generally under arti-
ficial cultivation, and so startling were the disclos-
ures concerning these hitherto sphinx-like floral
beings that a most extensive bibliography soon
attested the widespread inspi-
ration and interest awakened
by its pages.

But it is by no means nec-
essary to visit the tropics or
the conservatory for exam-
ples of these wonders. Our
own Asa Gray, one of Dar-
win's instant proselytes, was
prompt to demonstrate that
the commonest of our native
American species might af-
ford revelations quite as as-
tonishing as those exotic species which Darwin
had described.

During a period of many years the writer has
devoted much study to our native species of or-
chids from this evolutionary stand-point of their
cross -fertilization tendencies. Of the following
examples, selected from his list, some are elabora-

A FEW NATIVE ORCHIDS 1 85

tions of previous descriptions of Gray and others,
though pictorially and descriptively the result of
direct original study from nature ; others are from
actual observation of the insects at work on the
flowers; and others still, original demonstrations
based upon analogy and the obvious intention of
the floral construction, the action of the insect —
its head or tongue — having been artificially imi-
tated by pins, bristles, or other probe-like bodies.

How many an enthusiastic flower -hunter has
plucked his fragrant bouquet of the beautiful
Arethusa, in its sedgy haunt, without a suspicion
of the beautiful secret which lay beneath its sin-
gular form ! Indeed, how many a learned bota-
nist, long perfectly familiar with its peculiarities
of shape and structure, has been entirely content
with this simple fact, nor cared to seek further for
its interpretation ! But

" All may have the flower now,
For all have got the seed."

With Darwin as our guide and the insect as
our key — an open sesame — the hidden treasure is
revealed It is now quite possible, as Darwin
demonstrated, to look upon a flower for the first
time and from its structure foretell the method of
its intended cross-fertilization ; nay, more, possibly

1 86 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

the kind, or even the species, of insect to which
this cross-fertilization is intrusted.

Let us look at our Arethusa. The writer has
never happened to observe an insect at work
upon this flower, but the intention of its structure
is so plain that by a mere examination we may
safely prophesy not only what must happen when
the insect seeks its nectar, but with equal assur-
ance the kind of insect thus invited and expected.
I have indicated a group of the orchids in their
usual marshy haunt, and in Fig. 4, separately, a
series of diagrams presents sections of the flower,
natural size and duly indexed, which renders de-
tailed description hardly necessary. The column
is here quite elongated, forked at the tip, the
space between the forks occupied by the anther,
which is hinged to the upper division, This
anther lid is closed tightly, with the sticky mass
of pollen hidden behind it in the cavity. The
stigma is on the external inner side of the lower
division, and thus distinctly separated from the
pollen. The " lip " is extended forward as a hos-
pitable threshold to the insect. And to what in-
sect might we assume this invitation of color, fra-
grance, nectar, and threshold to be extended ?

Let us consider the flower simply as a device
to insure its own cross -fertilization. The insect

A FEW NATIVE ORCHIDS 1 87

is welcomed; it must alight and sip the nectar;
in departing it must bear away this pollen upon
its body, and convey it to the next Arethusa blos-
som which it visits, and leave it upon its stigma.
These are the conditions expressed ; and how
admirably they are fulfilled we may observe when
we examine flower after flower of a group, and
find their nectaries drained, their anther cells
empty, and pollen upon all their stigmas. The
nectar is here secreted in a well — not very deep —
and the depth of this nectar from the entrance is
of great significance among all the flowers, having
distinct reference to the length of the tongue
which is expected to sip it. In the Arethusa, it
is true, the butterfly or moth might sip at the
throat of the flower, but the long tongues of these
insects might permit the nectary to be drained
without bringing their bodies in contact with the
stigma. Smaller insects might creep into the
nectary and sip without the intended fulfilment.
It is. clear that to neither of such visitors is the
welcome extended. What, then, are the condi-
tions embodied ? The insect must have a tongue
of such a length that, when in the act of sipping,
its head must pass beyond the anther well into
the opening of the flower. Its body must be
sufficiently large to come in contact with the an-

i88

MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

ther. Such requisites are perfectly fulfilled by
the hn.mblebee, and we may well hazard the
prophecy that the Bombus is the welcomed affini-
ty of the flower.

The diagrams (Fig. 4) sufficiently illustrate the
efficacy of the beautiful plan involved. At A
the bee is seen sipping the nectar. His forward

movement thus far to this point has only seemed
to press the edge of the anther inward, and thus
keep it even more effectually closed. As the bee
retires (B), the backward motion opens the lid,
and the sticky pollen is thus brought against the
insect's back, where it adheres in a solid mass.
He now flies to the next Arethusa blossom, enters
it as before, and in retiring slides his back against
the receptive viscid stigma, which retains a por-
tion of the pollen, and thus effects the cross-fer-
tilization (C). Professor Gray surmised that the

A FEW NATIVE ORCHIDS 1 89

pollen was withdrawn on the insect's head, and it
might be so withdrawn, but in other allied orchids
of the tribe Arethusse, however, in which the
structure is very similar, the pollen is deposited
on the thorax, and such is probably the fact in
this species. In either case cross -fertilization
would be effected. Nothing else is possible in
the flower, and whether it is Bombus or not that
effects it, the method is sufficiently evident.

Having thus had one initiation into this most
enticing realm of riddles, each successive orchid
whose structure we examine from this stand-point
becomes a most interesting, perhaps a fresh, prob-
lem, whose assumed solution may often be veri-
fied by studying the insect in its haunts. Dar-
win thus foretold the precise manner of the
cross-fertilization of Habcnaria mascula, and also
the insect agent, simply by the structural prophe-
cy of the flower itself.

Suppose, for example, an unknown orchid blos-
som to be placed in our hands. Its nectary tube
is five inches in length, and as slender as a knit-
ting-needle. The nectar is secreted far within its
lip. The evolution of the long nectary implies
an adaptation to an insect's tongue of equal
length. What insect has a tongue five inches
long, and sufficiently slender to probe this nee-

1 90

MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

tary? The sphinx -moth only. Hence we infer
the sphinx -moth to be the insect complement to
the blossom, and we may correctly infer, more-
over, that the flower is thus a night -bloomer.
Examination of the flower,
with the form of this moth
in mind, will show other
adaptations to the insect's
form in the position of pol-
len and stigma, looking to
the flower's cross- fertiliza-
tion. In some cases this
is effected by the aid of
the insect's tongue ; in oth-
ers, by its eyes.

In our own native orchids
we have a remarkable exam-
ple of the latter form in the
Habenaria orbicu la fa, whose
structure and mechanism
have also been admirably
described by Asa Gray.
All orchid-hunters know this most exceptional
example of our local flora, and the thrill of delight
experienced when one first encounters it in the
mountain wilderness, its typical haunt, is an event
to date from — its two great, glistening, fluted

S, Stigma.
I.. Lip.

P Pollen pouch
N , ( ) lening tt

nectarv,
T Nectary tube
G, Gland.

Fig- 5

*>-"■ ■*•

I92 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

leaves, sometimes as large as a dinner -plate,
spreading flat upon the mould, and surmounted
by the slender leafless stalk, with its terminal
loose raceme of greenish-white bloom.

A single blossom of the species is shown in
Fig. 5, the parts indexed. The opening to the
nectary is seen just below the stigmatic surface,
the nectary itself being nearly two inches in
length. The pollen is in two club-like bodies,
each hidden within a fissured pouch on either
side of the stigma, and coming to the surface at
the base in their opposing sticky discs as shown.
Many of the group Habenaria or Platanthera, to
which this flower belongs, are similarly planned.
But mark the peculiarly logical association of the
parts here exhibited. The nectary implies a wel-
come to a tongue two inches long, and will re-
ward none other. This clearly shuts out the
bees, butterflies, and smaller moths. What in-
sect, then, is here implied? The sphinx -moth
again, one of the lesser of the group. A larger
individual might sip the nectar, it is true, but its
longer tongue would reach the base of the tube
without effecting the slightest contact with the
pollen, which is of course the desideratum here
embodied, and which has reference to a tongue
corresponding to the length of the nectary. There

A FEW NATIVE ORCHIDS

193

are many of these smaller sphinxes. Let us sup-
pose one to be hovering at the blossom's throat.
Its slender capillary tongue enters the opening.
Ere it can reach the sweets the insect's head
must be forced well into the throat of the blos-
som, where we now
observe a most re-
markable special pro-
vision, the space be-
tween the two pollen
discs being exactly ad-
justed to the diameter
of the insect's head.
What follows this en-
trance of the moth
is plainly pictured in
the progressive series
of illustrations (Fig.
6). A represents the
insect sipping ; the
sticky discs are
brought in contact
with the moth's eyes,
to which they ad-
here, and by which
they are withdrawn
from their pouches Fig. 6

I94 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

as the moth departs (B). At this time they are
in the upright position shown at C, but in a few
seconds bend determinedly downward and slightly
towards each other to the position D. This change
takes place as the moth is flitting from flower to
flower. At E we see the moth with its tongue
entering the nectary of a subsequent blossom. By
the new position of the pollen clubs they are now
forced directly against the stigma (E). This sur-
face is viscid, and as the insect leaves the blossom
retains the grains in contact (F), which in turn
withdraw others from the mass by means of the
cobwebby threads by which the pollen grains are
continuously attached. At G we see the orchid
after the moth's visit — the stigma covered with
pollen, and the flower thus cross-fertilized.

In effecting the cross-fertilization of one of the
younger flowers its eyes are again brought into
contact with this second pair of discs, and these,
with their pollen clubs, are in turn withdrawn, at
length perhaps resulting in such a plastering of
the insect's eyes as might seriously impair its
vision, were it not fortunately of the compound
sort.

In another allied example of the orchids — the
Showy Orchid — we have, however, what would
appear a clear adaptation to the head of a bee,

A FEW NATIVE ORCHIDS

■95

Fig 7

though one which misrht also avail of the service
of an occasional butterfly. A group of this beau-
tiful species is shown in my illustration. A favored
haunt is the dark damp woods, especially beneath
hemlocks, and with its deep pink hood and pure
white lip is quite showy enough to warrant its
specific title, " spectabilis." An enlarged view of
the blossom is seen in Fig. 7, and in Fig. 8 a still
Greater enlargement of the column.

mwWMtfr

A, Pollinium. B, Webby connection between grains. C, Stretched to four times its length.
Fig. 8

I96 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

I have seen many specimens with the pollen
masses withdrawn, and others with their stigmas
well covered with the grains. Though I have
never seen an insect at work upon it in its haunt,
the whole form of the opening of the flower
would seem to imply a bee, particularly a bum-
blebee. If we insert the point of a lead -pencil
into this opening, thus imitating the entrance of a
bee, its bevelled surface comes in contact with the
viscid discs by the rupture of a veil of membrane,
which has hitherto protected them. The discs
adhere to the pencil, and are withdrawn upon it
(Fig. 9). At first in upright position, they soon
assume the forward inclination, as previously de-
scribed. The nectary is about the length of a
bumblebee's tongue, and is, moreover, so amply
expanded at the throat below the stigma as to
comfortably admit its wedge-shaped head. The
three progressive diagrams (Fig. 10) indicate the
result in the event of such a visit.

The pollen discs are here very close together,
and are protected within a membraneous cup, in
which they sit as in a socket. As the insect in-
serts his head at the opening (A) it is brought
against this tender membrane, which ruptures and
exposes the viscid glands of the pollen masses,
which become instantly attached to the face or

A FEW NATIVE ORCHIDS

I97

head, perhaps the eyes, of the burly visitor. As
the insect retreats from the flower, one or both
of the pollinia are withdrawn, as at B. Then im-
mediately follows a downward movement, which
exactly anticipates the
position of the stigma,
and as the bee enters
the next flower the pol-
len clubs are forced
against it (C), as in the
previous example.

In the case of a smaller bee visiting the flower,
the insect would find it necessary to creep fur-
ther into the opening, and thus might bring its
thorax against the pollen-glands. In either case
the change of position in the pollinia would in-
sure the same result.

pollen-pouch '/pollen-pouch

or anther-cell. / < - ' or anther-cell

stigma/- \M , .pollen mass

i98

MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

We have thus seen adaptation to the thorax,
the eyes, and the face in the three examples
given. And the entrance of the flower in each
instance is so formed as
to insure the proper angle
of approach for the insect
for the accomplishment of
'■y]J"-*0^^^^. the desired result. This

direct approach, so neces-
sary in many orchids, is in-
sured by various devices
— by the position of the
lip upon which the insect
must alight ; by the nar-
rowed entrance of the throat of the flower in
front of the nectary; by a fissure in the centre of
the lip, by which the tongue is conducted, etc.

Many other species allied to the above possess
similar devices, with slight variations; and there
is still another group whose structure is distinctly
adjusted to the tongues of insects — adaptations
not merely of position of pollen masses, but even
to the extent of a special modification in the en-
trance to the flower and the shape of the sticky
gland, by which it may more securely adhere to
that sipping member.

In the common pretty Purple -fringed Orchid,

A FEW NATIVE ORCHIDS

I99

whose dense cylindrical spikes of plumy blossoms
occasionally empurple whole marshes, we have an
arrangement quite similar to the H. orbicularis
just described, with the exception that the pollen-
pouches are almost parallel, and not noticeably
spread at the base (Fig. 11). In this case the
eyes of sipping butterflies occasionally get their
decoration of a tiny golden club, but more fre-
quently their tongues.

If, however, the butterfly should approach di-
rectly in front of the flower, as in a larger blossom
he would be most apt to do, he might sip the nec-
tar indefinitely and with-
draw his tongue without
bringing: it in contact with
the viscid pollen discs.
But in the dense crowd-
ing of the flowers, over
which the insect flutters
indiscriminately, the ap-
proach is oftenest made
obliquely, and thus the

tongue brushes the disc on the side approached,
and the pollen mass is withdrawn. But an exam-
ination of this orchid affords no pronounced evi-
dence of any specific intention. There is no un-
mistakable sign to demonstrate which approach is

200

MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

preferred or designed by the flower, and this de-
pendence on the insect's tongue or eye would
seem to be left to chance.

In another closely allied species, however, we
heave a distinct provision which insures the proper
approach of the tongue— one of many similar de-
vices by which the tongue is conducted directly
to one or the other of the pollen discs.

This is the Ragged Orchid, a near relative of
the foregoing, H.psycodes, but far less fortunate in

its attributes of beauty,

entrance to
nectary, side ft ,^
aperture of
opening divid
ed by palate

pollen pouch,
h L-st ism a.
m viscid pollen-
"' and guard-
ing opening

its long scattered spike
of greenish-white flow-
ers being so inconspic-
uous in its sedgy haunt
as often to conceal the
fact of its frequency.
Its individual flower is
shown enlarged at Fig.
12 — the lip here cut
with a lacerated fringe
(H. lacera). The pol-
len - pouches approach
slightly at the base, directly opposite the nec-
tary, where the two viscid pollen - glands stand
on guard. Now were the opening of the nectary
at this point unimpeded, the same condition

A FEW NATIVE ORCHIDS 201

would exist as in the H. psycodes — the tongue
might be inserted between the pollen discs and
withdrawn without touching them. But here
comes the remarkable and very exceptional pro-
vision to make this contact a certainty — a sug-
gestive structural feature of this flower of which I
am surprised to find no mention either in our
botanies or in the literature of cross-fertilization,
so far as I am familiar with its bibliography.
Even Dr. Gray's description of the fertilization
device of this species makes no mention of this
singular and very important feature. The nec-
tary here, instead of being freely open, as in other
orchids described, is abruptly closed at the central
portion by a firm protuberance or palate, which
projects downward from the base of the stigma,
and closely meets the lip below.

The throat of the nectary, thus centrally di-
vided, presents two small lateral openings, each of
which, from the line of approach through the
much- narrowed entrance of the flower, is thus
brought directly beneath the waiting disc upon
the same side. The structure is easily under-
stood from the two diagrams Figs. 1 2 and 1 3, both
of which are indexed.

The viscid pollen-gland is here very peculiarly
formed, elongated and pointed at each end, and it

202

MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

is not until we witness the act of its removal on
the tongue of the butterfly that we can fully ap-
preciate its significance.

I have often seen butterflies at work upon this
orchid, and have ob-
served their tongues
generously decorated
with the glands and
remnants of the pol-
len masses.

The series of dia-
grams (Fig. 14) will, I
think, fully demon-
strate how this blos-
som utilizes the but-
terfly. At A we see the insect sipping, its
tongue now in contact with the elongated disc,
which adheres to and clasps it. The withdrawal
of the tongue (B) removes the pollen from its
pouch. At C it is seen entirely free and up-
right, from which position it quickly assumes
the new attitude shown at D. As the tongue
is now inserted into the subsequent blossom
this pollen mass is thrust against the stigma
(E), and a few of the pollen grains are thus with-
held upon its viscid surface as the insect de-
parts (F).

A FEW NATIVE ORCHIDS

203

In this orchid we thus find a distinct adapta-
tion to the tongue of a moth or butterfly.

Another similar device for assuring the neces-

sary side approach is seen in H.flava (Fig. 15), a
yellowish spiked species, more or less common in
swamps and rich alluvial haunts.

&**~mf

Professor Wood remarks, botanically, " The
tubercle (or palate) of the lip is a remarkable
character." But he, too, has failed to note the
equally remarkable palate of the ragged orchid,
just described, both provisions having the same
purpose, the insurance of an oblique approach to
the nectary. In H.flava this "tubercle," instead

204

MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

of depending from the throat, grows upward from
the lip, and, as we look at the flower directly from
the front, completely hides the opening to the
nectary, and an insect is compelled to insert its

tongue on one side, which direction causes it to
pass directly beneath the pollen disc, as in H.
lacera, and with the same result.

Of all our native orchids, at least in the north-
eastern United States, the Cypripedium, or Moc-

casin-Flower, is perhaps the gen- &
eral favorite, and certainly the
most widely known. This
is readily accounted for not ; ,

only by its frequency, but
byitsconspicuousness. The
term " moccasin-flow- %, 7

er" is applied more
or less indiscriminate-
ly to all species. The
flower is also known
as the ladies'- slipper, '/

more specifically Ve-
nus's-slipper — as war- ^ ^

ranted by its generic %*

botanical title — from \j,

a fancied resemblance
in the form of the in-
flated lip, which is |f
characteristic of the ge-
nus. We may readily
infer that the fair god-
dess was not consult-
ed at the christening.

There are six native species of the cypripedium
in this Eastern region, varying in shape and in
color— shades of white, yellow, crimson, and pink.

206 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

The mechanism of their cross-fertilization is the
same in all, with only slight modifications.

The most common of the group, the C. acaiile,
most widely known as the moccasin-flower, whose
large, nodding, pale crimson blooms we so irre-
sistibly associate with the cool hemlock woods,
will afford a good illustration.

The lip in all the cypripediums is more or less
sac-like and inflated. In the present species, C.
acanh\ however, we see a unique variation, this
portion of the flower being conspicuously bag-like,
and cleft by a fissure down its entire anterior face.
In Fig. 1 6 is shown a front view of the blossom,
showing this fissure. The "column" (B) in the
cypripedium is very distinctive, and from the
front view is very non-committal. It is only as
we see it in side section, or from beneath, that we
fully comprehend the disposition of stigma and
pollen. Upon the stalk of this column there ap-
pear from the front three lobes— two small ones
at the sides, each of which hides an anther at-
tached to its under face— the large terminal third
lobe being in truth a barren rudiment of a former
stamen, and which now overarches the stigma.
The relative position of these parts may be seen
in the under view.

The anthers in this genus, then, are two, instead

" " ' " " >

•<fe; ^

208

MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

of the previous single anther with its two pollen-
cells. The pollen is also quite different in its
character, being here in the form of a pasty mass,
whose entire exposed surface, as the anther opens,
is coated with a very viscid gluten.

With the several figures illustrating the cross-
fertilization, the
reader will read-
ily anticipate any
description of the
process, and only
a brief commen-
tary will be re-
quired in my
text.

I have repeat-
edly examined
the flowers of C.
acaule in their
haunts, have ob-
served groups
wherein every flower still retained its pollen, oth-
ers where one or both pollen masses had been
withdrawn, and in several instances associated
with them I have observed the inflated lip most
outrageously bruised, torn, and battered, and occa-
sionally perforated by a large hole. I had ob-

m stigma.
"(polumn
beneath)

Under View of Column

FEW NATIVE ORCHIDS 20Q

served these facts in boyhood. The inference, of
course, was that some insect had been guilty of
the mutilation; but not until I read Darwin's de-
scription of the cross - fertilization of this species
did I realize the full significance of these telltale
evidences of the escape of the imprisoned insect.
Since that time, many years ago, I have often sat
long and patiently in the haunt of the cypripe-
dium awaiting a natural demonstration of its
cross -fertilization, but as yet no insect has re-
warded my devotion.

At length, in hopelessness of reward by such
means, I determined to see the process by more
prosaic methods. Gathering a cluster of the
freshly opened flowers, which still retained their
pollen, I took them to my studio. I then cap-
tured a bumblebee, and forcibly persuaded him to
enact the demonstration which I had so long
waited for him peaceably to fulfil. Taking him
by the wings, I pushed him into the fissure by
which he is naturally supposed to enter without
persuasion. He was soon within the sac, and the
inflexed wings of the margin had closed above
him, as shown in section, Fig. 17. He is now en-
closed in a luminous prison, and his buzzing pro-
tests are audible and his vehemence visible from
the outside of the sac. Let us suppose that he

2IO

MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

at length has become reconciled to his condition,
and lias determined to rationally fulfil the ideal of
his environment, as he may perhaps have already
clone voluntarily before.
The buzzing ceases, and
our bee is now finding
sweet solace for his in-
carceration in the co-
pious nectar which he
finds secreted among
the fringy hairs in the
upper narrowed portion
of the flower, as shown
at Fig. 1 8 A. Having
satiated his appetite, he
concludes to quit his
close quarters. After a few moments of more
vehement futile struggling and buzzing, he at
length espies, through the passage above the nec-
tary fringe, a gleaming light, as from two win-
dows (A). Towards these he now approaches.
As he advances the passage becomes narrower
and narrower, until at length his back is brought
against the overhanging stigma (Fig. 18 B). So
narrow is the pass at this point that the efforts of
the bee are distinctly manifest from the outside in
the distension of the part and the consequent

A FEW NATIVE ORCHIDS

21 L

slight change in the droop of the lip. In another
moment he has passed this ordeal, and his head is
seen protruding from the window -like opening
(A) on one side of the column.

But his struggles

are not yet ended, for his egress is still slightly
checked by the narrow dimensions of the opening,
and also by the detention of the anther, which
his thorax has now encountered. A strange eti-
quette this of the cypripedium, which speeds its

212 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

parting guest with a sticky plaster smeared all
over its back. As the insect works its way be-
neath the viscid contact, the anther is seen to be
drawn outward upon its hinge, and its yellow con-
tents are spread upon the insect's back (Fig. 18
C), verily like a plaster. Catching our bee before
he has a chance to escape with his generous
floral compliments, we unceremoniously introduce
him into another cypripedium blossom, to which,
if he were more obliging, he would naturally fly.
He loses no time in profiting by his past experi-
ence, and is quickly creeping the gantlet, as it
were, or braving the needle's eye of this narrow
passage. His pollen -smeared thorax is soon
crowding beneath the overhanging stigma again,
whose forward- pointed papillae scrape off a por-
tion of it (Fig. 1 8 B), thus insuring the cross-fer-
tilizing of the flower, the bee receiving a fresh
effusion of cypripedium compliments piled upon
the first as he says "good-bye." It is doubtful
whether in his natural life he ever fully effaces
the telltale effects of this demonstrative an rcvoir.
Such, with slight modifications, is the plan
evolved by the whole cypripedium tribe. Darwin
mentions bees as the implied fertilizers, and
doubtless many of the smaller bees do effect
cross-fertilization in the smaller species. But the

A FEW NATIVE ORCHIDS 2 13

more ample passage in acaule would suggest the
medium-sized Bombus as better adapted— as the
experiment here-
with pictured from
my own experience
many times would
seem to verify, while
a honey-bee intro-
duced into the flow-
er failed to fulfil
the demonstration,
emerging at the little doorway above without a
sign of the cordial parting token.

Occasionally I suppose a fool bumblebee is en-
trapped within the petal bower and fails to find
the proper exit, or it may be— much less a fool-
having run the gantlet once too often, decides to
escape the ordeal ; hence the occasional mutilated
blossom already described.

One of the most beautiful of our orchids,
though its claims to admiration in this instance
are chiefly confined to the foliage, is the common
" Rattlesnake - Plantain," its prostrate rosettes of
exquisitely white reticulated leaves carpeting
many a nook in the shadows of the hemlocks, its
dense spikes of yellowish -white blossoms signal-
ling their welcome to the bees, and fully compen-

214

MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

sating in interest what they may lack in other at-
tractive attributes.

The single flower is shown enlarged in Fig. 19
— A, a young blossom, with analyses B and C, the
latter indexed ; D, an older blossom, with similar
analyses (E and F). Both sorts are to be found
upon every spike of bloom, as the inflorescence
begins at the base and proceeds upward. As
we look into the more open flower we observe a
dark -colored speck, which, by analysis, proves to
be the lid of the anther. This portion is further
shown enlarged in Fig. 20, A. If we gently lift it

with a pin, we dis-
close the pollen
masses in the cavity
(B) thus opened (C,
profile section), the
two pairs united to
v_ a common viscid
gland at the base,
this Hand ao;ain se-
creted behind a veil
of moist membrane,
as also shown at B.
This membrane is, moreover, very sensitive to the
touch. Below the flattened tip of the column, and
at a sharp inward angle, is the stigma. In the

[3 c

A FEW NATIVE ORCHIDS

■15

freshly opened flower (Fig. 19, A) the column in-
clines forward, bringing the anther low down, and
its base directly opposite the V-shaped orifice in
the lip, which also is quite firmly closed beneath
the equally converging upper hood of the blossom.

pollen
Q m<lssef hF8eanther

%-] fold of sensi-
e membrane

protecting
gland

The entrance is thus much narrowed. If we in-
sert a pin in this V-shaped entrance it comes in
contact with the sensitive membrane below the
anther, and it is immediately ruptured, as shown
at Fig. 20, D. The sticky gland is brought into
immediate contact, and clasps the pin, which, now

2l6

MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

being withdrawn, brings away the pollen, as in E
and F. Thus it is naturally removed on the
tongue of its sipping bee.

The further demonstration will be better shown
by profile sections (Fig. 21). Nectar is secreted

in the hollow of the lip indicated, somewhat as in
the cypripedium. If we now imitate with a probe
the habit of the insect and the action of its
tongue, we may witness a beautiful contrivance
for cross-fertilization. We will suppose the bee to

A FEW NATIVE ORCHIDS

217

be working at the top of the spike. He thrusts
his tongue into the narrow opening (G). The
membrane protecting the pollen-gland, thus sure-
ly touched, ruptures as described, and the exposed
gland attaches itself to the tongue, being with-
drawn as at H, and located on the insects

anther-lid

meinbranq,

tongue, as in F, Fig. 20. The bee leaves this
flower cluster and flies to another, upon which it
will usually begin operation at the bottom. The
flower thus first encountered is an old bloom, as
in Fig. 19, D. Its sepals are more spreading, the
lip slightly lowered, and the column so changed

2l8

MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

A. Extended

Folded beneath the head.

as to present the plane of the stigma, before out
of sight, in such a new position as to invariably

receive the pollen.
The tongue of a bee
entering this flower
conveys the pollen
directly against the
stigmatic surface (I),
which retains its dis-
entangled fecunda-
ting grains, as at
J, and the flower's functional adaptations are ful-
filled.

In the allied Spiranthes, or " Lady's-Tresses," a
somewhat similar mechanism prevails, by which
fertilization is largely effected by the changed
position or angle of the stigma plane.

And thus we might proceed through all the
orchid genera, each new device, though based upon
one of the foregoing plans, affording its new sur-
prise in its special modification in adaptation to
its insect sponsor— all these various shapes, folds
of petals, positions, colors, the size, length, and
thickness of nectary, the relative positions of pol-
len and stigma, embodying an expression of wel-
come to the insect with which its life is so mar-
vellously linked. Occasionally this astounding

A FEW NATIVE ORCHIDS 219

affinity is faithful to a single species of insect,
which thus becomes the sole sponsor of the blos-
som, without whose association the orchid would
become extinct. A remarkable instance of this
special adaptation is seen in the great Angraecum
orchid of Madagascar, described by Darwin ; and
inasmuch as this species glorifies Darwin's faith
in the truth of his theory, and marks a notable
victory in the long battle for its supremacy, it af-
fords an inspiring theme for my closing para-
graphs.

Among the host of sceptics — and were they
not legion ? — who met this evolutionary and rev-
olutionary theory with incredulity, not to say ridi-
cule or worse, was one who thus challenged its
author shortly after the appearance of his "Fer-
tilization of Orchids," addressing Darwin from
Madagascar substantially as follows: "Upon your
theory of evolution through natural selection all
the various contrasting structural features of the
orchids have direct reference to some insect which
shall best cross-fertilize them. If an orchid has a
nectary one inch long, an insect's tongue of equiv-
alent length is implied; a nectary six inches in
length likewise implies a tongue six inches long.
What have you to say in regard to an orchid
which flourishes here in Madagascar possessing a

220 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

long nectary as slender as a knitting-needle and
eleven inches in length ? On your hypothesis
there must be a moth with a tongue eleven inch-
es long, or this nectary would never have been
elaborated."

Darwin's reply was magnificent in its proof of
the sublime conviction of the truth of his belief:
" The existence of an orchid with a slender nec-
tary eleven inches in length, and with nectar se-
creted at its tip, is a conclusive demonstration of
the existence of a moth with a tongue eleven
inches in length, even though 110 such moth is
known."

Many of us remember the ridicule which was
heaped upon him for this apparently blind ad-
herence to an untenable theory. But victory
complete and demoralizing to his opponents
awaited this oracular utterance when later a dis-
ciple of Darwin, led by the. same spirit of faith
and conviction, visited Madagascar, and was soon
able to affirm that he had caught the moth, a
huge sphinx -moth, and that its tongue measured
eleven inches in length.

Here we see the prophecy of the existence of
an unknown moth, founded on the form of a blos-
som. At that time the moth had not been actu-
ally seen at work on .the orchid, but who shall

222 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

question for a moment that had the flower been
visited in its twilight or moonlight haunt the
murmur of humming wings about the blossom's
throat would have attested the presence of the
flower's affinity, for without the kiss of this identi-
cal moth the Angraecum must become extinct.
No other moth can fulfil the conditions necessary
to its perpetuation. The floral adaptation is
such that the moth must force its large head far
into the opening of the blossom in order to reach
the sweets in the long nectary. In so doing
the pollen becomes attached to the base of the
tongue, and is withdrawn as the insect leaves the
flower, and is thrust against the stigma in the
next blossom visited. This was clearly demon-
strated by Darwin in specimens sent to him, by
means of a probe of the presumable length and
diameter of the moth's tongue. Shorter-tongucd
moths would fail to remove the pollen, and also to
reach the nectar, and would thus soon learn to
realize that they were not welcome.

The Angraecum also affords in this long pen-
dent nectary a most lucid illustration of the pres-
ent workings of natural selection. The normal
length of that nectary should be about eleven
inches, but in fact this length varies considerably
in the flowers of different plants, this tendency to

A FEW NATIVE ORCHIDS 223

variation in all organic life being an essential and
amply demonstrated postulate of the entire theory
of natural selection. Let us suppose a flower
whose nectary chances to be only six inches in
length. The moth visits this flower, but the tip
of its tongue reaches the nectar long before it
can bring its head into the opening of the tube.
This being a vital .condition, the moth fails to
withdraw the pollen ; and inasmuch as the pol-
len is usually deposited close to the head of the
moth, this flower would receive no pollen upon
its stigma. This particular blossom would thus
be both barren and sterile. None of its pollen
would be carried to other stigmas, nor would it
set a seed to perpetuate by inheritance its shorter
nectary.

Again, let us suppose the variation of an extra
long nectary, and the writer recently saw a num-
ber of these orchids with nectaries thirteen inches
in length. The moth comes, and now must needs
insert its head to the utmost into the opening of
the flower. This would insure its fertilization
by the pollen on the insect's tongue; and even
though the sipper fai/ed to reach the nectar, the
pollen would be withdrawn upon the tongue, to
be carried to other flowers, which might thus be
expected to inherit from the paternal side the ten-

224 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

dency to the longer nectary. The tendency tow-
ards the perpetuation of the short nectary is there-
fore stopped, while that of the longer nectary is
insured.

THE MILKWEED

The Milkweed

THE singular hospitality of our milkweed blos-
som is nowhere matched among Flora's min-
ions, and would seem occasionally in need of su-
pervision.

Just outside the door here at my country stu-
dio, 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 be-
tokened that the bees were making the most of
their opportunities.

Yielding to the temptation, I was soon stand-
ing in the midst of the plants. The purple fra-
grant umbels of bloom hung close about me on
all sides, each flower, with its five generous horns

228 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

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 rev-
erence, how divinely well the milkweed and the
bee understand each other. After a brief search
among the blossom clusters I return to my seclu-
sion 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 messen-
ger 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 inex-
plicable attributes. Its threshold must bear its
own peculiar welcome to its insect, or perhaps to
its humming-bird friend, or counterpart; its nee-

THE MILKWEED 229

taries must both tempt and reward his coining,
and its petals assist his comfortable tarrying.

Next to the floral orchids, the mechanism of
our milkweed blossom is perhaps the most com-
plex and remarkable, and illustrates as perfectly
as any of the orchid examples given in Darwin's
noble work the absolute divine intention of the
dependence of a plant species upon the visits of
an insect.

Our milkweed flower is a. deeply planned con-
trivance to insure such an end. It fills the air
with enticing fragrance. Its nectaries are stored
with sweets, and I fancy each opening bud keenly
alert with conscious solicitude for its affinity.
Though many other flowers manage imperfectly
to perpetuate their kind in the default of insect
intervention, the milkweed, like most of the or-
chids, is helpless and incapable of such resource.
Inclose this budded umbel in tarlatan gauze and
it will bloom days after its fellow -blooms have
fallen, anticipating its consummation, but no pods
will be seen upon this cluster.

What a singular decree has Nature declared
with reference to the milkweed ! She says, in
plainest terms, " Your pollen must be removed on
the leg of an insect, preferably a bee, or your kind
shall perish from the face of the earth." And

23O MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

what is the deep-laid plan by which this end is
assured ? My specimens here on the desk will
disclose it all.

Here are two bees, a fly, and a beetle, each hang-
ing dead by its legs from a flower, an extreme
sacrificial penalty, which is singularly frequent,
but which was certainly not exacted nor con-
templated in the design of the flower. A care-
ful search among almost any good -sized cluster
of milkweeds will show us many such prisoners.
As in all flowers, the pollen of the milkweed
blossom must come in contact with its stigma be-
fore fruition is possible. In this peculiar family
of plants, however, the pollen is distinct in char-
acter, and closely suggests the orchids in its con-
sistency and disposition. The yellow powdery
substance with which we are all familiar in or-
dinary flowers is here absent, the pollen being
collected in two club-shaped or, more properly,
spatula -shaped masses, linked in pairs at their
slender prolonged tips, each of which terminates
in a sticky disc -shaped appendage united in V-
shape below. These pollen masses are concealed
in pockets (B) around the cylindrical centre of the
flower, the discs only being exposed at the sur-
face, at five equidistant points around its rim,
where they lie in wait for the first unwary foot

- \\

232 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

that shall touch them. A glance at the two
views of this central portion of the flower, as it
appears through my magnifying-glass — the honey-
horns and sepals having been removed — will, I
think, indicate its peculiar anatomy or mechan-
ism. No stigma is to be seen in the flower, the

stigmatic surface
which is to receive
the pollen being con-
cealed within five com-
partments, each of
which is protected by
a raised tent-like cov-
ering, cleft along its
entire apex by a fine
fissure (A). On f side
of each of these, and
entirely separated from the stigma in the cav-
ity, lie the pollen masses within their pockets,
each pair uniting at the rim below in V-shape, the
union at the lower limit of the fissure.

With this more intimate knowledge of the
floral anatomy, let us now visit our milkweed-
plant and observe closely.

A bee alights upon the flower — the object of
its visit being, of course, the sweets located in the
five horn -shaped nectaries. In order to reach

THE MILKWEED**- 233

this nectar the insect must hang to the bulky
blossom. Instantly, and almost of necessity, it
would seem, one or more of the feet are seen to
enter the upper opening of the fissure, and during
the insects movements are drawn through to the
base. The foot is thus conducted directly be-
tween the two viscid discs, which immediately
cling closer than a brother, and as the foot is final-
ly withdrawn, the pollen is pulled from its cell.
The member now released seeks a fresh hold, and
the same result follows, the leg almost inevitably
entering the fissure, and this time drawing in the
pollen directly against the sticky stigmatic sur-
face within. The five honey -horns have now
been drained, and as our bee leaves the flower he
is plainly detained by this too hearty " shake " or
" grip " of his host, and quite commonly must
exert a slight struggle to free himself. As the
foot is thus forcibly torn away, the pollen mass is
commonly scraped entirely off and retained with-
in the fissure, or perhaps parts at the stalk, leav-
ing the terminal disc clinging on the insect's leg.
Occasionally, when more than one leg is entangled,
the dangling blossom is tossed and swayed for sev-
eral seconds by the vigorous pulling and buzzing,
and a number of these temporary captives upon
a single milkweed-plant are always to be seen.

234 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

Not unfrequently the mechanism so well adapt-
ed exceeds its functions and proves a veritable
trap, as indicated in my specimens. I have found
three dead bees thus entrapped in a single umbel
of blossoms, having been exhausted in their strug-
gles for escape; and a search among the flowers
at any time will show the frequency of this fatal-
ity, the victims including gnats, flies, crane-flies,
bugs, wasps, beetles, and small butterflies. In
every instance this prisoner is found dangling by
one or more legs, with the feet firmly held in the
grip of the fissure.

Almost any bee which we may catch at random
upon a milkweed gives perfect evidence of his
surroundings, its toes being decorated with the
tiny yellow tags, each successive flower giving
and taking, exchanging compliments, as it were,
with his fellows. Ordinarily this fringe can hard-
ly prove more than an embarrassment; but we
may frequently discern an individual here and
there which for some reason has received more
than his share of the milkweed's compliments.
His legs are conspicuously fringed with the yel-
low tags. He rests with a discouraged air upon
a neighboring leaf, while honey, and even wings,
are seemingly forgotten in his efforts to scrape
off the cumbersome handicap.

THE MILKWEED

235

An interesting incident, apropos of our embar-
rassed bee, was narrated to me by the late Al-
phonso Wood, the noted botanist. He had
received by mail from California a small box con-
taining a hundred or more dead bees, accompa-
nied by a letter. The writer, an old bee-keeper,
had experience, and desired enlightenment and
advice. The letter
stated that his bees
were " dying by thou-
sands from the at-
tacks of a peculiar
fungus." The ground
around the hive was
littered with the vic-
tims in all stages of
helplessness, and the
dead insects were
found everywhere at
greater distances scat-

tered around his premises. It needed only a
casual glance at the encumbered insects to see
the nature of the malady. They were laden
two or three pairs deep, as it were, with the
pollen masses of a milkweed. The botanist wrote
immediately to his anxious correspondent, in-
forming him, and suggesting as a remedy the

236 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS

discovery and destruction of the mischievous
plants, which must be thriving somewhere in
his neighborhood. A subsequent letter conveyed
the thanks of the bee -keeper, stating that the
milkweeds — a whole field of them — had been
found and destroyed, and the trouble had imme-
diately ceased. I am not aware that Mr. Wood
ever ascertained the particular species of milk-
weed in this case. It is not probable that our
Eastern species need ever seriously threaten the
apiary, though unquestionably large numbers of
bees are annually destroyed by its excessive hos-
pitality. I have repeatedly found honey - bees
dead beneath the plants, and my cabinet shows a
specimen of a large bumblebee which had suc-
cumbed to its pollen burden, its feet, and even the
hairs upon its body, being fringed deep with the
tiny clubs — one of the many specimens which I
have discovered as the " grist in the mill " of that
wise spider which usually spreads his catch-all be-
neath the milkweeds.

Allied to the milkweed is another plant, the
dogbane {Apocynum), which has a similar trick of
entrapping its insect friends. Its drooping, fra-
grant, bell-shaped white flowers and long slender
pods will help to recall it. But its method of

THE MILKWEED

237

capture is somewhat similar to the milkweed.
The anthers are divided by a V-shaped cavity,
into which the insect's tongue is guided as it is
withdrawn from the flower, and into which it
often becomes so tightly wedged as to render es-
cape impossible. I have found small moths dan-
gling by the tongue, as seen in the illustration
below.

wvK ^

AOALENA, house spider, 7.

Acypia, grape-vine-moth, 160.

Andromeda (A. ligustrina), singular
greeting to the bee, 126; interior
arrangement of flower, 12S ; re-
lease of the pollen, 129.

Angraecum, orchid of Madagascar,
with nectary eleven inches long,
219.

Ants, herding the aphides, 166; a
model honey-farm, 167.

" Ant-holes," 61.

Aphides, plant-lice, founders of the
feast, 165; herded by ants, 167.

Apocyiuim, dogbane, 236.

Aprophora, spume-bearer, 82.

Arethusa bulbosa, orchid, 175.

Argiope, field spider, 8.

Aristolochias, 1 19.

Aristotle, 23.

Arum, wild : — Position of the an-
thers, 141 ; progressive stages of
change, 142.

Asclepias cornuta, milkweed, 227.

Asilus, "robber-fly," 8.

Axell, a follower of Darwin, 116.

Bees: —The drone of, 5; a counter-
part of clover ; dependence of
clover on, 117; manner of ap-
proach, 121; black-and-white
banded, 126 ; approach to the
blue- flag, 131 ; experiment with
the bumblebee, 209 ; his escape
from the flower, 210 ; manner of
cross-fertilizing, 212; manner of
conveying the pollen, 218; his dif-
ficulties with the milkweed flower,

233 ; the cumbersome handicap,

234 ; destroyed by the milkweed,
235.

Beetles {Cicindela), tiger, 6S.

Birds: — Swifts, 5 ; robin, 5 ; vireo, 5,
45 ; indigo, 5 ; chat, 5, 40 ; oriole,
5, 32; red -headed chippy; barn-
swallow, 6, 28, 39, 40 : cuckoo, 23;
"kow-bird"; cow black - bird ;
bunting, 27; song- sparrow, 30,
40 ; Maryland yellow - throat, 28,
45; Wilson's thrush; chewink, 32;
fly-catcher; bluebird; oven-bird;
cat - bird ; phcebe, 40 ; bobolink;
"reed-bird," 53 ; humming, 227.

240

INDEX

Birds' nests: — Flimsy structure of
the cuckoo's, 26 ; song-sparrow's,
30 ; oriole's swinging hammock ;
cobweb structure of the vireo's,
32; size of yellow - bird's ; sum-
mer yellow-bird's beautiful home,
47 ; a four -story house, a pos-
sible fashion in featherdom,
51; pipit's, 35; wood-sparrow's,
37-

Bittersweet ( Celastrns scandens ),
queer little harlequins on, 9 ; its
scarlet-coated seeds, 88.

Blackburn, Mrs., quoted, 35.

Blair, Patrick, his claims concerning
pollen, in.

Blossom ceremonies, 119.

Blue-flag, its hidden anthers reached
only by the bumblebee or large
fly, 129 ; manner of the bee's ap-
proach, 131.

Burroughs on wren-building, 17.

Butterflies : — Great yellow swallow-
tail (Papilio turnus); red admiral
{Pyrameis Atlanta); small yellow
(P hilodice); semicolon (Grapta in-
terrogationis ) ; comma ( Vatzessa
comma), 153 ; orange; white {Aph-
rodite), 154 ; white cabbage {Pon-
tia oleracea), 153.

Cactus, prickly - pear, its golden

bower, 118.
Collinsonia, horse-balm, 136.
Caterpillars, 10, 14, 15, 62.
Celastrus scandens, bittersweet, 88,
Chamoelirium luteum, devil's -bit,

133.
Chipmonk, 6.
Cicada, victim of the sand -hornet,

77; manner of depositing its eggs;

period of transformation, 97, time
of hatching, 100.

Cicindela, tiger-beetle, 6S.

Clover, cause of failure of crop in
Australia, 117.

Cobwebs : — A dusty prize ; a two
year's span, 7 ; a mixed assort-
ment in, 8.

Cone-flower (Rudbeckia hiiia), 138 ;
embryo seeds ; arrangement of
the anthers, 139

Cow black - bird, 27; his favorite
perch ; old dame's theory, 28 ; an
unwelcome intruder, 30 ; a prowl-
ing foe, 31.

Cow -bird: — Ravenous young para-
site, 31 ; a clamoring lubber, 37 ■
"Black Douglas" of the bird-
home, 38 ; selected victims, 39 ;
distribution of its eggs ; vicious
habits, 40; egg -laying intervals;
demoralizing conditions ; Ameri-
can species an improvement, 41 ;
survival of the fittest, 42; balance
of power, 44 ; outwitted, 51 :
massing for migration, 52.
" Cow-spit," So.

Cross - fertilization, 115, 122, 178,

189, 194.
"Cuckoo-spit," So.

Cuckoos: — Poetic misnomer, 23;
outrage on maternal affection ;
yellow-billed ; black - billed ; im-
agination versus facts, 25 ; bad
workmanship of nest, 26 ; its
stammering cry, 27 ; manner of
depositing its eggs ; handling the
egg with her bill, 33; short period
of incubation ; voracious appetite
of the young ; aggressive selfish-
ness, 34; the tragedy of the nest,

INDEX

24I

35 ; manner of disposing of its
nest-mates, 36.
Cypripedium acaule, moccasin-flow-
er ; ladies'- slipper ; Venus's-slip-
per, 205.

Darwin : — Process of anatomical
evolution, 35; theory of cross-fer-
tilization, 105 ; inspired insight,
115; his disciples, 116; experi-
ments with pollen, 126; weakness
of self - fertilizing flowers, 144 ;
triumphant revelation, 171 ; re-
affirming Sprengel's theory, 178 ;
a chosen interpreter, 181 ; de-
pendence on insects, 183 ; reveal-
ing the hidden treasure, 185 ; fore-
telling the manner of cross-fertili-
zation, 189 ; description of the
cross - fertilization, 209 ; bees as
implied fertilizers, 212 ; truth of
his belief, 220.

Darning-needle, dragon-fly (Libellu-
lidcr), 156 ; his dainty morsel, 160.

Delpino, a follower of Darwin, 116.

Desmodium, its hospitable welcome,
118.

Devil's-bit (Chamtflirium luteum),
133.

Digger wasp, its color and wire-
like waist, 72 ; manner of work-
ing, 74; covering its tracks; open-
ing the tomb, 76; living food for
the young grub, 77 ; its remark-
able carrying power, 7S.

Dogbane (Apocyniwi), its fragrant,
bell-shaped flowers, 236; trapping
moths, 237.

Dogwood, 5.

Door-Step Neighbors : — Chronicle of
a day, 58 ; disappearing holes, 59 ;
16

"ant-holes"; a danger signal; an
unhealthy court, 61; a transfor-
mation, 62 ; an experiment ; meth-
od of excavation, 63 ; a stalwart
worker, 64 ; an uncouth nonde-
script; spider-like legs, 66 ; crawls
on his back, 67 ; a tiny black wasp;
a spicier - catcher, 69 ; resting on
her wings; inspecting her burrow,
70; manner of burying her prey;
skilful workmanship, 71 ; a new-
comer; her wire-like waist; digging
her tunnel, 72 ; manner of work-
ing; sound of labor, 74 ; covering
her tracks; opening the tomb, 76 ;
fresh living food, 77 ; carrying sev-
en times its weight; peculiar feat-
ures of stone -piling, 78 ; color of
the wasp, 79 ; the spume-bearer,
81 ; nomadic blossoms ; a sack
bearer, S3 ; winter quarters, 84.

Epeira, field spider, 8.
Epiphytes, air-plants, 1S1.
Evening primrose, its golden neck-
lace, Il8.

"Fertilization of Flowers,"

116; wrong theory, 114.
Fertilization of orchids, 105, 183.
Flies : — Robber, 8 ; bluebottle, 8 ;

harvest ichneumon, 45, 77, 96.
Foxes, wild gambols of, 6.
Froghopper. See Spume - bearer

(Aprophora), 82.

Gartner, recognizing the theory of

cross-fertilization, 115.
Genesta, its reception of insects,

118.
Geranium, \vild(C. sylvaticum), 112.

242

INDEX

Gilbert, concerning cuckoo's eggs,

25-

"Gobs," So.

Gray, Asa: — Demonstration con-
cerning orchids, 184; surmise con-
cerning the withdrawal of pollen,
188; orchid structure, iqo.

Grew, Nehemias, discovery concern-
ing pollen, Iio; discoveries about
pollen, 113 ; first step in progress,
116.

Habenakia flava : — Yellow-spik-
ed, 203 ; II. lac era, ragged, 200 ;
//. orbicularis, showy, 194, 199 ;
//. psycodes, purple - fringed, 200 ;
II i/iascitla, 1S9.

Heath, its distinguishing character-
istics, 123.

Hemiptera, bugs with sucking beaks,
81.

Herbert : — A follower of Sprengel,
108 ; recognizing the principle of
cross-fertilization, 115.

" Honey -dew Picnic": — Gathering
of the clans, 153 ; a selected spot,

154 ; a motley assemblage, 155 ;
an outlaw, 157 ; a finish fight,

155 ; funeral baked meats, 164 ;
gathering his grist; the founder of
the feast, 158.

Honey-guides, 112, 129.

Hornets : — Its heavy load, 9 ; on the
watch, 15 ; "solitary," 17 ; queer
home of, 18 ; great sand, 77 ;
black paper, i6r.

Horse-balm {Collinsonid) , its singu-
lar shape, 136; manner of bee's
approach to, 138.

Huber : — On insect slavery, 151 ; on
the cultivation of the aphides, 166.

Insect Fertilization, 115.

JaCK-IN-THE-PULPIT, detaining its

guests, 119.
Jardine, Sir William, concerning

cuckoo's eggs, 32.
Jenner, Dr., habits of the young

cuckoo, 35.

Knight, Andrew : — On the divi-
nation of flowers, 10S ; theory of
cross-fertilization, 115.

Kohlreuter : — Recognizing Spren-
gel's principles, 108 ; a botanical
pioneer, 115.

Krunitz, on flower honey, nt.

Labiates, flowers with lips, 122.

Ladies'-tresses {Spirant lies), 218.

Larva : — Hornet, 16 ; " puss-moth,"
76 ; psychid, 83.

Linnams : — Settling the theory of
fertilization, no; puzzled as to the
function of honey, in ; a second
step, 116 ; imperfect knowledge of
the orchid, 173.

Logan, concerning the cuckoo, 23.

Lubbock : — On the divination of
flowers, 108 ; follower of Darwin,
116 ; on the cultivation of aphides,
166.

Martial Spirit of Vespa, 19.

Membracis binotata, insect with a
sharp beak, a tree-hopper, 91.

Milkweed : — Its matchless hospital-
ity; purple pompons; its five horns,
227 ; its one mission ; the hum-
ming-bird its friend, 228 ; complex
mechanism ; enticing fragrance ;
removal of pollen on. insects' legs,

INDEX

?43

229 ; four captives, 230 ; its honey
trap; its tenacious grip, 233: an
assortment of victims ; cumber-
some handicap, 234 ; a wholesale
desttoyer, 235.

Mint family, 122.

Mnio-tiltida, summer yellow - bird,
47-

Moccasin- flower {Cypripedium aca ti-
le), 205.

Moths : — Twilight; sphinx, 118, 190,
220 ; grape-vine, 160.

Mountain laurel : — Showers of pol-
len of ; curious construction of
flowe'r of; withers if brought in-
doors, 124 ; character of the pol-
len, 125.

Mouse, motley collection of food of ;
mischief of, 7.

Midler, Hermann : — On the divina-
tion of flowers, 108 ; on defective
observation, 114 ; the relations be-
tween the flower and insect, 116 ;
on fertilization, 142.

Nature's Equilibrium, 39.
Natural observation, 57.
Nomadic blossoms, 83.

Orchids : — Dependence on insects,
144; strange mechanical adapta-
tion ; sweet - pogonia ; perfume
suggesting raspberries, 145 ; in-
tention of the blossom, 146; adap-
tation for insects, 147 ; its frag-
rance a perfumed whisper of wel-
come, 148'; a contrast, 172; form
of invitation, 173; insect comple-
ment, 174; Arethusa bulbosa,
175 ; theories concerning the con-
veyance of the pollen, 176 ; the

most highly specialized form (if
flowers, 180; distinguished by its
structure ; American varieties not
air-plants ; form of flower, 1S1 ;
elasticity of the pollen of the
Spectabilis, 182; self - fertilizing,
183; American and exotic species,
1S4; Arethusa's fragrance, 185;
its structure, 186 ; significant
depth of nectar wells; conditions
demanded of insects, 187; Gray's
surmise, 188; sphinx - moth its
only complement, 190; manner of
carrying the pollen by sphinx-
moth, 193 ; extracting the pollen
with a pencil ; length of the nec-
tary, 196 ; purple - fringed, 198 ;
ragged, 200 ; very exceptional
provision, 201 ; yellow - spiked,
203 ; moccasin - flower ; ladies' -
slipper; Yenus's-slipper; the color
of, 205 ; distinctive character of,
206 ; practical experiment, 209 ;
imprisonment of the bee; manner
of its release, 2IO ; rattlesnake-
plantain, 213; Angraecum, its long
nectary, 219 ; tongue of a sphinx-
moth eleven inches long, 220 ;
nectary thirteen inches long, 223.

" Origin of Species": — First import-
ant presentation of the theory of
cross-fertilization, 105 ; tardy ap-
preciation of the work, 115.

Odynerus jlavipes, wren-wasp, 10.

Ovid, concerning hornets, 18.

Parallels in Nature, 152.
Platanthera, orchid group, 192.
Pliny, 23.

Pogonia ophioglossoides, sweet - po-
gonia, 145.

244

INDEX

Polistes, brown wasp, 161.

Primrose, evening, 118.

Psychid : — A sack-bearer ; drags its
house with it; feeds on seed-pods,
83; winter quarters of silk, 84.

Queer Little Family: — Tree-
hopper ( Membracis binotata ) ; a
singular entertainment ; graceful
curves, 87; a branch in masquer-
ade ; queer thorns, 8S ; a sudden
disappearance ; animated thorns ;
like a covey of quails, 89 ; like
"Bob White," 90; singular agil-
ity; queer anatomy; always ready
for flight, 91; fondness for locust
and oak-trees, simulating the color
and character of the branches, 92 ;
manner of sitting on the branches,
93 ; always headed towards the
top; tiny tufts of cotton, 94; color
and size of the tufts; a mere frothy
shell ; a riddle, 95 ; its relations,
96; an investigation, 97; its tech-
nique, 98 ; aerated cement ; froth-
house builder, 99; period of hatch-
ing, 100 ; a house for the winter ;
not a wanderer, 101.

Ragged Orchid (H. lacera), 200.
"Rattlesnake-plantain," 213.
Rudbeckia hirta, cone-flower, 138.

Sage {Salvia officinalis), strange
curved stamen, 119; nature's ar-
rangement, 112.

Salvia, its welcome to the bee, 117.

Self-fertilization, 141.

Sheep-spit, 80.

Showy orchid (H. orbicularis), 194.

Snorting war-horse, 18.

Solitude, the pleasures of, 3.

" Solomon's ant," i?2.

Spectabilis, orchid, 182 ; its favorite
haunt, 195.

Spiders, agalena, epeira, argiope, 8 ;
a two years' span, 7 ; a silken vor-
tex ; miscellaneous food, 8.

Spiranthes, " Lady's-tresses," 218.

Sprengel, Christian Conrad: — In-
spiration from the wild geranium,
108 ; on the mystery of color, 112 ;
theory of fertilization ; a poser to
Linnseus, 113 ; his wrong theory,
114 ; divining half the truth, 176 ;
assumption disproved, 178.

Spume-bearer (Aprophora), its dom-
icile of suds ; wonderful power of
jumping, 82.

Starling ; dispossessing woodpecker
from nest, 43.

Studio Company : — " Tumultuous
privacy"; contested territory;
snickering squirrels, 4 ; selected
food ; unsymmetrical carpentry ;
drone of bees ; carol of birds ;
flurry of swifts ; accompaniments
to my toil, 5 ; wild fox ; pet chip-
monk ; pet toad ; his lightning
tongue ; home in a bowl, 6 ; an
old friend, 9.

Summer yellow-bird (Alnio-tiltidcc),

47-
Sweet-pogonia (P. ophioglossoides),

145-
Swift, Jonathan, on parasites. 44.

Tennyson, quoted, 24.

"The Secrets of Nature in Forms
and Fertilization of Flowers
Discovered," Sprengel's work,
"3-

INDEX

245

Thevenot, concerning the thrift of

insects, 152.
Tiger-beetle (Cicindeld), 68.
Toads, 6.
Toad-spit, 80.
Tree-hopper, 93.

Venus's - slipper ( Cypripedium

acaule), 205.
Vireo, abandons its nest, 45.

Wasps : — Wren, 10; microscopic,
45 ; tiny black, 69 ; digger, 72,
162; orange-spotted, 79; brown;
mud, 161.

"Waxwork" bittersweet {Celastrus
scandens), 88.

Welcome of the flowers: — The func-
tion of the stamen, 106; difference
in cells, 107 ; condition of the
flower, 108 ; physiological feat-
ures; recognition of sex in flowers,
109; exchange of courtesies; each
flower a law unto itself, 117 ;
action of " jack -in -the -pulpit ";
cypripedium and aristolochias ;
peculiarity of the sage, 119; queer
stamens ; nature's arrangement,
I2i; cross - fertilization insured,
122 ; showers of laurel pollen ;
curious construction of flower,

124 ; singular greeting to the bee
126; remarkable interior arrange
ment of the Andromeda, 128
hidden anthers of the blue - flag
129; intercommunication and re
ciprocity, 135.

Wild geranium ( G. sylvaticum ),
112.

Wild volapilk, 4.

Wilson, cow-bird's eggs, 33.

Wind as a fertilizing agent, 154.

White, Gilbert, cuckoo's eggs, 32 ;
rich localities, 58.

Wood, Alphonso : — On tubercles,
203 ; on embarrassed bees, 235.

Woodchucks, 5.

Wren -wasp {Odynems flavipes): —
A cumbersome prize, 10 ; select-
ing a home ; way stations ; a sec-
ond instalment, 11 ; very familiar,
12 ; a well-stocked home, 13 ; im-
potent anaesthetic, 14 ; manner of
catching her prey ; a hypodermic-
injection, 15 ; food on storage ;
closing the cell after depositing
egg. IO ; living food ; preference
for ready - made houses ; resem-
blance to the yellow-jacket, 17.

Zenarchus, concerning the cicada,
96.

THE END

WILLIAM HAMILTON GIBSON'S WORKS.

ILLUSTRATED BY THE AUTHOR.

EYE SPY. Afield with Nature among Flowers and Animate Things.

Svo, Cloth, Ornamental, $2 50.
OUR EDIBLE TOADSTOOLS AND MUSHROOMS, and How

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SHARP EVES. A Rambler's Calendar, New Edit ion. Svo, Cloth,

Ornamental, $2 50.
STROLLS BY STARLIGHT AND SUNSHINE. Royal Svo,

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HAPPY HUNTING-GROUNDS. A Tribute to the Woods and

Fields. 4to, Cloth, Gilt Edges, $7 50. (In a Box.)
HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS; or, Saunterings in New England.

New Edition. 8vo, Cloth, Ornamental, $2 50.
PASTORAL DAYS; or, Memories of a New England Year. 4to,

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CAMP LIFE IN THE WOODS, and the Tricks of Trapping and

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NEW YORK AND LONDON:
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