1786 A TEXTBOOK OF THEORETICAL BOTANY 



and red, or red and blue. The flowers are pollinated in this country by bees 

 but in their native countries humming-birds play an important part. A few 

 are wind-pollinated. None is completely hardy in this country though 

 F. riccartoni (Fig. 1678) is hardy in southern districts, and in sheltered 

 parts of Cornwall and western Scotland forms large, thick hedges. Else- 

 where it does best as a wall shrub. 



Fig. 1678. — Fuchsia riccartoni. Flowering 

 shoot. 



The genus Lopezia contains fifteen Central American species. Their 

 chief interest lies in their mechanism for pollination. The flowers are truly 

 zygomorphic, the two upper petals being bent upwards a little way from 

 the base and in the bend is an apparent drop of nectar, which in reality is a 

 glossy piece of hard tissue. Nectar is actually secreted at the base of the 

 flower. There are two stamens of which only the posterior one is fertile, 

 and opposite it is a petaloid staminode. In the early stage the style is 

 undeveloped and insects alight on the stamens. Later the style grows up 

 in place of the stamen, which now bends upwards out of the way. In L. 

 coronata there is an upward tension in the posterior stamen and a down- 

 ward one in the anterior one. When an insect alights on a flower an 

 explosion occurs. 



Finally in the genus Circaea we have small herbaceous plants in which 

 the flowers are typically dimerous and represent the extreme case of 

 reduction in the family. In this genus the ovary is either one- or two-locular 

 with only one ovule in each loculus. The fruit is indehiscent and nutlike 



I 



