Owing to this flower's early season of bloom and to the depth of
its spurs, in which nectar is secreted by two long processes of
the middle stamens, only the long-tongued female bumblebees then
flying are implied by its curious formation. Two canals leading
to the sweets invite the visitor to thrust in her tongue, and as
she hangs from the white heart and presses forward to drain the
luscious drops, first on one side, then on the other, her hairy
underside necessarily comes in contact with the pollen of younger
flowers and - with the later maturing stigmas of older ones, to
which she carries it later. But, as might be expected, this
intelligent bee occasionally nips holes through the spurs of the
flower that makes dining so difficult for her - holes that lesser
fry are not slow to investigate.

According to the Rev. Alexander S. Wilson, bumblebees make holes
with jagged edges; wasps make clean-cut, circular openings; and
the carpenter bees cut slits, through which they steal nectar
from deep flowers. Who has tested this statement about the guilty
little pilferers on our side of the Atlantic?


SQUIRREL CORN
(Bicuculla Canadensis) Poppy family

Flowers - Irregular, greenish white tinged with rose, slightly
fragrant, heart-shaped, with 2 short rounded spurs, over 1/2 in.
long, nodding on a slender scape. Calyx of 2 scale-like sepals;
corolla heart-shaped at base, consisting of 4 petals in 2 united
pairs, a prominent crest on tips of inner ones; 6 stamens in 2