162 FLORA HISTORICA. 



for the bleak situations in which it grows naturally, 

 as on the highest rocks, or out of the crevices of the 

 most exposed cliffs, or the chinks of the loftiest 

 towers: in all of these situations its parts of fructifi- 

 cation are guarded against the tempest by the sin- 

 gularly-shaped corolla, which defies either wind or 

 rain to enter the flower until impregnation has taken 

 place, when the mask falls off to allow a free access 

 of air to the seed vessel. We have frequently re- 

 marked that the bees, and more particularly the 

 humble-bees, have entered this flower by pressing 

 open the lips, as if they were conscious that such an 

 opening existed, although it shuts so close as to de- 

 ceive the nicest eye, and snaps to the moment the 

 insect has gained admittance, leaving it to revel 

 unobserved within the mask, from which it makes 

 its exit with the same ease as it entered. This 

 species of instinct approaches near to reason, since 

 the bee cannot have been trained or instructed to 

 this habit. 



Linnseus placed this plant in the fourteenth class 

 of his sexual system, which he named Didynamia, 

 fron the Greek ol^^ twice, and ^uvccixi^, power, be- 

 cause the flower is furnished with four stamens, two 

 f which are always considerably longer than the 

 t her two, and converging close to the upper lip of 

 the corolla, each pair of anthers approaching, which 

 renders the distinction of this class very striking. 



