Part 16

Allied to the milkweed is another plant, the dogbane (Apocynum), which has a similar trick of entrapping its insect friends. Its drooping, fragrant, bell-shaped white flowers and long slender pods will help to recall it. But its method of 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 The anthers are divided by a V-shaped cavity, into which the insect's tongue is guided as it is withdrawn from the flower, and into which it often becomes so tightly wedged as to render escape impossible. I have found small moths dangling by the tongue, as seen in the illustration below.

INDEX

Agalena, house-spider, 7.

Alypia, grape-vine-moth, 160.

Andromeda (A. ligustrina), singular greeting to the bee, 126; interior arrangement of flower, 128; release 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.

Apocynum, dogbane, 236.

Aprophora, spume-bearer, 82.

Arethusa bulbosa, orchid, 175.

Argiope, field spider, 8.

Aristolochias, 119.

Aristotle, 23.

Arum, wild: --Position of the anthers, 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 counterpart of clover; dependence of clover on, 117; manner of approach, 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 difficulties with the milkweed flower, 233; the cumbersome handicap, 234; destroyed by the milkweed, 235.

Beetles (Cicindela), tiger, 68.

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; phoebe, 40; bobolink; "reed-bird," 53; humming, 227.

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; summer yellow-bird's beautiful home, 47; a four-story house, a possible fashion in featherdom, 51; pipit's, 35; wood-sparrow's, 37.

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

Blackburn, Mrs., quoted, 35.

Blair, Patrick, his claims concerning pollen, 111.

Blossom ceremonies, 119.

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