242 The Field Naturalist 's Quarterly August 



called zygomorphic flowers. Among the gamopetalous flowers 

 this irregularity of development is marked in the natural order 

 Labiatas, of which the white dead-nettle may be quoted as 

 an example, with its graceful overarching hooded upper lip 

 and the protruded flattened lower lip. Also the very nearly 

 allied order Scrophulariaceae, many of the corollas, such as 

 the snapdragon, have the most irregular forms. Among the 

 perianths, the flowers of the Orchis order are strangely 

 irregular, having a " floral doorstep " quite different from the 

 other divisions of the flower usually patterned with streaks 

 and dots of a darker colour than the rest of the perianth. 



That nature makes the most economical use of existing 

 materials is shown by the way in which some parts of the 

 flowers are modified into useful appliances. 



Many flowers secrete nectar or honey, which is the 

 wage they offer to the labourers in the flower fields — the 

 bees and other insects, which perform the necessary task of 

 conveying pollen from one flower to another. 



Sometimes the honey is simply held in the hollow of a 

 tiny depression at the base of the petals or corolla, while at 

 others a longer or shorter tube or spur is produced for its 

 reception. Such nectaries may be found in the Tropaeolum, 

 where the calyx is spurred ; in the columbine, the monks- 

 hood, and the valerian, where the petals and corolla are 

 spurred ; in the larkspur both the calyx and petals ; or in 

 the violet or pansy one of the petals and two of the stamens 

 are similarly developed. In the Orchidaceae the majority 

 of the perianths, in our indigenous species, are likewise 

 spurred, and contain rich stores of nectar. 



We must not forget, in enumerating the numberless forms 

 of flowers, the fact of " single " and " double " flowers, those 

 which possess only a normal number of parts, and those which 

 contain these parts multiplied again and again. What is the 

 reason of this prolification ? The majority of wild flowers are 

 single, so that we may take it that cultivation is responsible 

 for the change in the flowers, and that some organ must be 

 done away with to find room for the new departure. It is 

 usually the petals of a flower which are multiplied, and the 

 stamens pressed into service to form those petals. You may 

 see the gradual change taking place in flowers such as the 



