But if these foxgloves live at others’ expense, there are
creatures which in turn prey uponthem. Caterpillars of a peacock
butterfly, known as the buckeye (Junonia coenia), with eye-like
spots on its tawny, reddish-gray wings, divide their unwelcome
attentions between various species of plantain, the snapdragon
in the garden, gerardias, and foxgloves.
333


Yellow and Orange


The Smooth False Foxglove (D. Virginica)—G. quercifolia
of Gray—which delights in rich woods, moist or dry, bears
similar, but slightly larger, blossoms on a smooth, usually
branched, and taller stem, whose lower leaves especially are
much cleft (pinnatifid). This species is commoner South and
West, blooming from July to September. All the foxgloves
elevate their sticky hee to the mouth of their tubes, that the
pollen-dusted bumblebee may leave some of the vitalizing dust
brought from another flower on its surface before she turns up-
side down and enters in this unusual fashion to receive a fresh
supply on her way to the nectar in the base of the tube. Her
pressure against the pointed anther-tips causes the light, dry pol-
len to sift out; on the removal of her pressure the gaping chinks
close to save it from small bees and flies. It falls out, therefore,
only when the bee is in the right ee to receive it for export
to another foxglove’s stigma. Hairy footholds on anthers and
filaments are provided lest the bee fall while reversed and sifting
out the pollen.
