102 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



fever, who must seek refuge abroad, where rag weed is un- 

 known, or hie themselves to some ahitude where the pollen 

 cannot reach. 



In striking contrast to this prodigality of nature in pollen 

 production, where she is compelled to use the wind as her 

 transfer agent, is her close-fistedness in cleistogamy, where the 

 pollen packet is delivered direct from anther to stigma without 

 the intervention of bug, bee, butterfly or wind. The cleistoga- 

 mous flower itself has the appearance of a bud arrested in de- 

 velopment. It does not open until the seeds are ready for dis- 

 tribution. Here is an instance of a close corporation in the 

 floral world ; outsiders like the bee and the butterfly are not in- 

 vited to its board. The running expense is reduced to a mini- 

 mum; there is no outlay for petals for advertising purposes; 

 no honey is provided for the entertainment of unnecessary 

 visitors; the production of pollen is cut down, the stamens re- 

 duced in number and size ; the pistil is abortive, with only the 

 vestige of a stigma, while the manufacture of perfume is cut 

 out altogether. When the seeds are ripe and ready for de- 

 livery the capsules splits open on three sides, the three valves 

 assume a horizontal position and then the edges fold together 

 with a powerful twist and the ripe seeds are expelled with con- 

 siderable force to quite a distance, much in the same manner as 

 you would shoot a moist apple seed between forefinger and 

 thumb and land it on teacher's desk when she wasn't looking. 



With all this close-fisted frugality in reproductive outlay 

 the tribe of violet increases prodigiously, and perhaps outstrips 

 many flower families which keep open house all season and 

 entertain all comers with a lavish expenditure for gold-dust, 

 honey-sweets, perfumery and general floral display. The pur- 

 pose and importance of cleistogamy, with its small accessory, 

 apetalous, scentless, nectarless, abnormal flowers is quite un- 

 known, but many plants have adopted it, notably among our 

 own flora, jewel weed and oxalis. Perhaps it was a happy 



