288 SIGNIFICANT VESTIGES IN 



economy, and have resolved themselves into honey-bearing spurs. 

 This modification of the outrivalled petals is found in several 

 members of the Crowfoot tribe. The Marsh Marigold {Caltha 

 palustris) has large yellow sepals, which simulate petals and act as 

 such, the true petals meantime being present as honey-bearing 

 horns. In the Hellebore, also, the petals have been converted 

 into nectaries. 



The calyx of the Larkspur is so vivid in colour that the petals 

 are not now essential to make the blossom attractive to insects. 

 Nature, therefore, has assigned them additional duties, and only 

 by performance of these do the petals keep their place. The two 

 upper ones are converted into horns of plenty, stored with nectar, 

 and the two lower are so shaped and placed as to cover the 

 stamens and protect the pollen from thieving crawlers and rain. 



In the most highly-specialised member of the family, the Field 

 Larkspur ( Delphmum cofisolida), these four petals have united 

 into one body. " The stamens," says Sir John Lubbock, " mature 

 one after the other, and each, as it ripens, raises its head into the 

 small entrance to the flower, so that the proboscis of the bee, in 

 pushing down to the nectar, can scarcely fail to jostle the anther. 

 After shedding their pollen the stamens retire, and the stigma then 

 comes up and occupies the place they have vacated." Flowers 

 with their honey at the bottom of a deep spur are said by Miiller 

 to have lost the power of self-fertilisation, and the Larkspur, 

 according to Sir John Lubbock, is utterly unable to set its seed 

 without the visits of the humble bee. 



Following the rule and custom of the Crowfoots, the four- 

 petalled Larkspur should have a fifth petal, and it is probable that 

 the flower once possessed one. Superseded in its decorative duties 

 by the brilliant calyx, and finding no other work to do, this petal 

 became useless and atrophied. It has left no trace behind, but 

 we surmise its story from the fate which has overtaken similarly 

 circumstanced petals in the Larkspur's next-of-kin, the Aconite. 



In Aconite the process of atrophy has gone still farther. The 

 calyx has assumed all the duties of a corolla, and the petals are 

 reduced to two. The other three are sometimes visible as very 

 minute rudiments among the stamens — mere reminiscences of 

 bygone glories — and are sometimes altogether wanting. When the 



