VIOLETS 201 
The Violets form, with the pansies, a well-marked and 
well-known group, and need no general description. Their 
great botanical interest lies in their double method of 
producing seeds. The open flower has five sepals and 
five petals, one of which has a deep spur filled with 
honey, to attract fertilisimg bees, and an ingenious 
arrangement of stamens and pistils in order to secure 
safe transference of pollen. For some reason or other, 
either because the flowers open before the bees are 
WATER LILY. 
coming round, or because they are specially suited to 
some species which is not often found in England, these 
flowers are often left unfertilised, though I think Mr. 
Step puts the case rather too strongly when he says that 
not one in a hundred succeeds. Still, one must agree 
that the plant is in need of another method to fall back 
upon, and it finds the way. After the bright flowers 
have fallen off, small buds which never open are pro- 
duced, and in them are one or two stamens which 
shed a little pollen direct upon the enclosed pistil, and 
make sure of seed. The Wild Pansy, however, always 
seems to get on with its insect friends—perhaps because 
it flowers later—and it makes seeds by the first method’ 
only. One of the foreign violets, by the way, is respon- 
