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136
My Studio Neighbors
·
W. Hamilton Gibson
123
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
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
hanging
dead
by
its
legs
from
a
flower,
an
extreme
sacrificial
penalty,
which
is
singularly
frequent,
but
which
was
certainly
not
exacted
nor
contemplated
in
the
design
of
the
flower.
A
careful
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
before
fruition
is
possible.
In
this
peculiar
family
of
plants,
however,
the
pollen
is
distinct
in
character,
and
closely
suggests
the
orchids
in
its
consistency
and
disposition.
The
yellow
powdery
substance
with
which
we
are
all
familiar
in
ordinary
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
surface,
at
five
equidistant
points
around
its
rim,
where
they
lie
in
wait
for
the
first
unwary
foot
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
mechanism.
No
stigma
is
to
be
seen
in
the
flower,
the
stigmatic
surface
which
is
to
receive
the
pollen
being
concealed
within
five
compartments,
each
of
which
is
protected
by
a
raised
tent-like
covering,
cleft
along
its
entire
apex
by
a
fine
fissure
(A).
Outside
of
each
of
these,
and
entirely
separated
from
the
stigma
in
the
cavity,
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.
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
