io8 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 



The flowers are numerous, often crowded, borne in 

 a loose, leafy, rather oblong panicle. They are of a 

 pale purplish-blue colour. The calyx is five-cleft, 

 with usually equal, narrow to lance-shaped segments, 

 divided to the middle. The tube of the corolla is 

 more or less cylindrical and broad, with a spreading 

 limb, the throat fringed with hairs, with five lobes, 

 longer than the calyx-lobes, ovate or oblong, with no 

 intermediate smaller lobes. The four to five stamens 

 are included and attached to the tube. The style is 

 persistent after the flower fades. The two stigmas are 

 bent back. The capsule, which is stalked or not, 

 opens by two valves septicidally, and is many-seeded. 

 The seeds are surrounded by the placenta. 



The Felwort is from 6-12 in. in height. It 

 flowers late in August and September, and is either 

 annual or biennial, and herbaceous. 



The flowers are conspicuous, and only open fully in 

 bright sunlight. The tube is very long, being 

 16-18 mm. in length, but being 6 mm. wide the base 

 can be reached by humble bees and Lepidoptera. 

 The honey lies at the base of the ovary and tube. 

 The stamens form ridges on the tube, and divide it 

 up into compartments. Hairs at the entrance pro- 

 tect the honey from flies and rain, and the flower 

 also shuts in wet weather. The anthers open above, 

 and are below the stigma. Insects touch the latter 

 first, then the anthers. 



The seeds are scattered by the wind. 



As the second Latin name, used formerly as a 



