98 The Romance of Wild Flowers 
bee might search for the honey-glands. On pressing 
against the stamen spurs the leverage has the effect 
of dislocating the ring of anthers, and the dry pollen 
will fall out upon your fingers, which stand in place 
of the bee’s face. The bee’s head pressed against the 
stigma will effect the same thing, owing to the 
curved style. If you will at once repeat the experi- 
ment with another Violet, you will find that some of 
the pollen-grains from your finger-tips adhere to 
the stigma ! 
The Sweet Violet certainly does all she can to take 
advantage of this highly specialised flower, but it 
must be admitted that her efforts generally end in 
failure. The poets and moralists have always ex- 
tolled the Violet on account of her modesty, 
‘“‘Like virtue oft unseen, unknown, 
Save by the sweetness, round it thrown ;” 
but they ought to add patience also to her attributes, 
for she perfects these wonderful arrangements in 
each flower, ever hoping to woo the bee, and patiently 
waits, yet he seldom comes. Not one in a hundred 
of such flowers produces a single seed, in spite of royal 
purple hues, fragrance, and honey. The probable 
reason is that the flowers are produced at too early 
a, season ; certainly there are few bees about in early 
spring, and possibly such things as Sallow-bloom 
(“ Palm ”) then offers greater attraction to those that 
are about. But the Violet is a resourceful plant, and 
she has not exhausted either her art or her means, 
though her purple flowers have been a considerable 
drain. She enlarges her leaves in the hope of retriev- 
ing her losses by additional production of nutritive 
