122 



THE FLOWER 



posterior openings, or exits (e). As it emerges through 

 this rather narrow portal, it bruslies against one of the 

 pollen masses (jt?), Avhich adheres to its head or shoulder. 

 In the next flower visited, the bee in leaving encounters 

 the stigma (s), and leaves on the surface some of the pollen 

 brought from the former flower. Finally succeeding in 

 crawling past this obstacle, it brushes a pollen mass from 

 this flower, to be carried to the next ; and so passes about, 

 always taking away pollen, but not depositing it upon 

 the stigma of the same flower. 



240. Sage {jSalvia^ Fig. 169 ^j. — The corolla is two- 

 lipped, as nearly ahvays in the Mint family, the lower lip 

 serving as a convenient landing stage for insects, while the 

 upper, erect and arched, incloses the two anthers (a). The 



flower is proterandrous, 

 and at the period rep- 

 resented in the figure 

 the stigma is seen pro- 

 truding from the upper 

 lip, its two branches 

 folded together. The 

 stamens are inserted 

 on the sides of the 

 narrow throat and 

 are hinged near the 

 point of insertion. 

 Each bears a projec- 

 tion (c) standing out 

 and partly blocking 

 the throat. When a 

 bee pushes its head 

 into the corolla tube, 

 these projections are pushed back, and the whole upper 

 parts of the stamens are rotated on the liinges. The 

 pollen sacs, heretofore concealed under the hood, are 



1 From Miiller's " Fertilization of Flowers," by courtesy of the INIacmil- 

 lan Company, publishers, New York. The book is a valuable reference 

 work. 



169. 



A B 



Mechanism of the flower of Salvia; a, 

 pollen sacs of the anthers, hidden 

 under the upper lip of tlie corolla; a', 

 their position when dusting the back 

 or sides of a bee ; c, lobes against 

 whicli the bee pushes in thrusting its 

 head into the tliroat of the corolla ; 

 s, stigma, immature; -s', stigma when 

 mature. In A the stamens are seen, 

 removed from the corolla ; /, filament 

 on which the anther turns. 



