LILIES AND ORCHIDS 133 
and brought it what it needs from other flowers, the 
petals and sepals fade away, but the leaves now expand 
with redoubled vigour. The chlorophyll corpuscles 
multiply, and the factory is busily engaged in storing up 
reserves in the bulb. 
There are, of course, far too many of the group for 
us even to mention all their names, but I want you 
to look a little more closely at some of the most typical 
and interesting, especially with regard to their methods 
of ensuring that the pollen goes to its proper destination, 
and is not wasted. All of the group seem to have a 
preference for pollen other than their own if they can 
get it, and usually secure this by ripening stamens and 
pistils at different times; but if they are not fertilised 
in the way they desire, it would seem 
that they are ready to accept their 
own pollen as a makeshift. 
The Fritillary, or Snake’s-head Lily, 
may be taken as an ordinary type of 
the way in which our present flowers 
are fertilised. The three sepals and 
three petals are set around the flower 
almost in one circle, slightly over- 
lapping at the edges, and hang down, 
forming a bell over the stamens and 
pistil. (One may note again, by the 
way, the partiality of almost all these 
flowers for the number three. There 
are six sepals and petals—three of 
each; usually three, but sometimes six, 
stamens; and three carpels to form 
the pistil. This is a useful clue, if one 
finds a plant that one cannot at first FRITILLARY. 
