Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from A Reader in Botany: Part II, Flower and Fruit, Selected and Adapted From Well-Known Authors
As the ?ower is upright and is quite large, rain drops must fall into it when it rains. But the drops cannot reach the nectar and mingle with it, because they are held back by the hairs, just as a drop of perspiration ?owing over a man's fore head Is held back by the eyebrows and eyelashes from running into the eyes. An insect, however, is not in the least hindered by these hairs from reaching the nectar. I now examined other ?owers and found that many of them had some thing in their structure which seemed to answer the same purpose. The more I studied the sub ject, the more plainly I saw that those ?owers which contain nectar are so constructed that while the insects can easily reach it, the rain cannot destroy it. I therefore concluded that the nectar was secreted for the sake of the insects, and that it was protected against the rain in order that they might enjoy it pure and uninjured.
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