Identifier: plantstheirway00ston (find matches)
Title: Plants and their ways in South Africa
Year: 1915 (1910s)
Authors: Stoneman, Bertha, 1866-
Subjects: Plants
Publisher: London, Longmans, Green
Contributing Library: The LuEsther T Mertz Library, the New York Botanical Garden
Digitizing Sponsor: The LuEsther T Mertz Library, the New York Botanical Garden

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s to arrange a floralclock, but the movements of flowers, like those of leaves, areregulated by varying conditions of temperature and sunshine,so it would not do to depend uponsuch a timepiece for getting toschool in time. When moths and beetles areflying about our lamps, have youever wondered what they are aboutso late at night ? It will be worthwhile to visit flowers with a lanternto find out. The story of the Yucca and itsmoth has been often told since itwas found by Mr. Riley and Dr.Engelmann,^ but it is so interestingthat it will bear repeating. TheYucca, which bears its majesticpanicles in many of our gardensfrom November till January, hascome from Mexico. The flowersare scentless during the day, but giveforth their fragrance, as do so manyof our flowers, only to attract nightvisitors. Have you ever seen theseeds after flowering ? For sixteenyears the flowers of one plant havebeen watched, and sixteen timesthey have withered and are cut off,for Nature retains no useless burdens.
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Fig. 163.—The Pronubatnothgathering pollen from thestamen of Yucca to carrylo the stigma. (From the Popular Science Month- ly.)The moth which can aid in quickening the seeds has been left behind in Mexico. illustrated books of Dr. Bolus on South African Orchids will help you tounderstand the flowers. 1C. V. Riley, Missouri Experiment Station Report, 1892. 166 Plants and their Ways in South Africa There in the daytime it rests, hidden in the half-closed flowers,matching them so nearly in colour with the front wingsthat it is difficult to detect. Like other night flowers, they arewhite, so that they can be seen from a distance. At nightthe flowers expand like large six-pointed stars, and themother moth begins her rounds. First she goes fromone stamen to another, until she has obtained a ball ofpollen nearly as large as her head, which is held by herfront legs against her body. She is not intent on nectar,nor does she gather pollen as bees do for making bee-bread. Why, then, does she c

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