104 TYPES OF BRITISH PLANTS 
drops patter harmlessly on the bracts or calyx, which 
have no objection to the process; in fact, the cleaning 
from the dust that clogs their action rather does them 
good. The Foxglove employs another method. If you 
look at a spike of its half-blown blossoms, you will notice 
that the buds point upward, but as the flower opens, and 
the stamens are exposed, the flower droops and points 
earthwards. The simplest method of avoiding the rain 
is for a flower that feels it coming simply to close. 
There is no better instance of this than that of the 
Scarlet Pimpernel, or Shepherd’s Weather-glass, which 
never opens at all when it is cloudy, and always shuts up 
at four or five to protect its precious burden from the 
dew. Many compound flowers, such as the common 
Daisy, the Ox-eye Daisy, and the Carline Thistle, fold the 
large outside florets (or little flowers) lke a roof over 
those within; but one may notice that when the flower’s 
fertilising work is done, and it has begun to wither, this 
power leaves it. How widely spread this power is among 
flowers you may note for yourselves by comparing any 
spot that is rich in flowers when a bright sun is on it, and 
when rain is falling. Half the colour has disappeared. 
Green calyxes are uppermost now, instead of red and 
blue; spreading petals have twisted themselves into in- 
conspicuous closed umbrellas, and the glory has departed. 
It may be asked, “How does such a flower as the 
primrose escape, which stares up into the sky, and has a 
tube in the centre of the flower, which ought to act as a 
death-trap for the pollen?” The answer is simple. This 
tube has, as you know, a narrow entrance, and when a 
raindrop falls on the top of it, the air within cannot 
escape. It therefore acts as a cushion, and keeps the 
raindrop resting above it. After a time comes a breath 
