2-20 



THE FLOWER. 



spikes : a day or two afterwards, the corolla opens, the filaments 

 greatly lengthen, and the lour anthers now pendent from them 

 give their light pollen to the wind ; but the stigmas of that flower 

 and of all below it on that spike are withered or past receiving 

 pollen. Among Grasses, Anthoxanthum is in the same ca^e. 

 The arrangement is somewhat similar to the Plantain in Amor- 

 pha, which is fertilized by insects, the simple stigma projecting 

 beyond the corolla in bud, while the anthers are still immature 



and enclosed. Scrophularia is a good instance of proterogyny 

 in flowers fertilized by bees. The flower is irregular (Fig. 

 420-422), and is approached from the front, the spreading lower 

 lobe being the landing place. Fig. 420 represents a freshly 

 opened blossom; and Fig. 421, a section of it. Only the style 

 tipped with the stigma is in view, leaning over the landing place ; 

 the still closed anthers are ensconced below. The next day or 

 a little later all is as in Fig. 422. The style, now flabby, has 

 fallen upon the front lobe, its stigma dry and no longer receptive : 

 the now-opening anthers are brought upward and forward to the 

 position which the stigma occupied before. A honey-bee, taking 

 nectar from the bottom of the corolla, will be dusted with pollen 

 from the later flower, and on passing to one in the earlier state 

 will deposit some of it on its fresh stigma. Self- fertilization 

 here can hardly ever take place, and only through some disturb- 

 ance of the natural course. 



40!>. Proterandry. The process is the reverse, and is at- 

 tended with much more extended movements in Clerodendron 

 Thompsoniffi, a Verbenaceous tropical African climber now com- 

 mon in conservatories. The adaptations in this flower (which 

 we indicated long ago) are exquisite. The crimson corolla 

 and bright white calyx in combination are very conspicuous. 

 The long filiform filaments and style, upwardly enrolled in the 



FIG. 420, 421. Early opened flower of Scrophularia nodosa, and a longitudinal 

 section. 422. Flower a day or two later. 



