152 



MONOCOTYLEDONS 



with scarlet tips at first; as they grow older and older, they 

 become darker and darker crimson and bend more and more 

 back. Visiting insects find honey in a hollow longitudinal furrow 

 in the middle and at the base of each petal. They suck it by 

 thrusting their long tongue into the nectary, while hovering in 

 front of the liower, and beating the stamens with their wings. 

 When they visit another liower, they thus carry the pollen of the 

 first flower over to the style of the second. We now understand 

 that it is advantageous to the plant to have its style thus bent 

 like a knee and placed in one plane Avith the stamens. 



4. The Stamens and the Pistil are unusually large in this flower, 

 and serve us as good specimens for the study of these organs. 

 It may first be noticed that the stamens also are arranged 

 in two whorls, alternating with one another and with the petals. 

 Examine some stamens in one of the green buds. We find that 

 they consist each of two parts, a filament and a head. The 

 head, called the anther, is grooved both along the face and the 



back. These grooves divide the anther into 

 two lobes, right and left. If we cut the un- 

 ripe anther transversely, we shall see two 

 bags filled with a fine yellow powder, the 

 pollen. When ripe, the two anther-bags split 

 up along their edges, and allow the pollen to 

 be removed by insects, as we have seen above. 

 The tissue, connecting the two halves of the 

 anther is called connective. The anther is 

 fixed on to the filament in its back (dorsifixedj and can be 

 turned round (versatile). 



. The essential part of the pistil is a knob- 

 like vessel, called ovary, on the top of the 

 flower-stalk. In Gloriosa the ovary consiijts 

 of three leaves or carpels, which fold in and 

 unite at their edges in tlie axis, so that there 

 are three hollow cells to hohl the ovuh^s, which 

 can be seen when the ovary is cut transverse- 

 ly. Even these three carpellary leaves alter- 

 nate with the tliroe stamens of the inner whorl 



Fig. 138. — Diagram 

 of ovary of Gloriosd. 



;•. l.'5i>. — Diagrum 

 of Lily flower. 



So we find that 



