GENTIAN FAMILY 



stamens with slender filaments and anthers con- 

 verging. 



So closed is the corolla of this Gentian, that 

 it was long supposed to be self-fertilized. Later, 

 it was discovered that the bumblebees fertilized 

 it. Neltje Blanchan, in Nature s Garden, writes 

 of the problem as follows: "Now, how can a 

 bumblebee enter this inhospitable-looking flow- 

 er ? If he did but know it, it keeps closed for his 

 special benefit, having no fringes or hairs to en- 

 tangle the feet of crawling pilferers, and no better 

 way of protecting its nectar from rain and butter- 

 flies. Watch him alight on a cluster of blos- 

 soms. . . . With some difficulty, it is true, he 

 thrusts his tongue through the valve of the 

 chosen flower where the five plaited lobes over- 

 lap one another; then he pushes with all his 

 might until, his head having passed the entrance, 

 most of his body follows, leaving only his hind 

 legs and the tip of his abdomen sticking out as 

 he makes the circuit. He has sense as well as 

 muscle, and does not risk imprisonment in what 

 must prove a tomb by a total and unnecessary 



102 



