78 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 
Three to four feet is a common height for this 
plant. The flowers are in bloom between June and 
September. 
The anthers ripen first, the stamens opening and 
shedding pollen and withering before the stigma is 
receptive. Only cross-pollination can thus be brought 
about, and that by the agency of insects. To guide 
them to the honey-glands dark lines in the petals 
leading to the centre serve as guides to the five 
glands at the base of the outer stamens, hairs at the 
base of the petals protecting the honey from the rain. 
Short-lipped insects can reach it. 
The five outer stamens, then the five inner, then 
the stigma mature in turn. Bees, flies visit it. 
The same beak-like style common to the Geranium 
group enables the seeds to be hurled to a distance 
when ripe by a catapult motion. 
The seeds are dispersed by the curling up of the 
style, as amongst other schizocarps. 
Meadow Crane’s Bill is called also Grace of God 
and Crowfoot, the foliage of the last resembling the 
leaves of the Meadow Crane’s Bill. 
THE HOLLY GROUP. 
The name Aquifoliacez affords an indication of 
one of the characteristics of this group of trees or 
shrubs, namely the spinose or thorny character of 
the leaves, which are usually armed with sharp- 
pointed spines. Amongst the cultivated forms are 
all kinds of variations of leaf-forms. In some, as in 
