i86 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 



of three to five flowers. The stalks are shorter than 

 the leaves. The four petals are oblong or inversely 

 ovate, twice as long as the four stamens. The fruit 

 is a rose-coloured blunt-angled capsule, with seeds 

 enclosed in a fleshy orange or scarlet aril. 



Spindle Wood flowers in May and June. It is a 

 perennial deciduous tree or shrub. 



The flowers are polygamous, and trioecious. The 

 male flowers contain a trace of a pistil, the female 

 rudimentary stamens. Those flowers which appear 

 to be complete function as male flowers, and rarely 

 produce seed. Flies are the chief visitors. Honey 

 is secreted by a fleshy disc around the style, and 

 forms a thin layer quite exposed, so that short- 

 tongued insects can reach it, especially flies. The 

 plant is foetid and may attract them. As the flowers 

 are inconspicuous other insects are not attracted to 

 them. The flies run all over the flower, so that were 

 the flowers not separate, both as regards space and 

 time, they would run as much chance of being self- 

 pollinated as cross-pollinated. The anthers in the 

 complete flowers ripen first, and stand some way 

 from the stigmas, opening outwards before the stigma 

 is mature; the latter opens several days later and 

 closes up again. 



The capsule opens by four to five valves, corre- 

 sponding to the number of cells. When ripe it is 

 red, and when open the orange aril is conspicuous. 

 The embryo is embedded in albumen, with two 

 green cotyledons and a radicle. The seeds may be 



