106 The Romance of Wild Flowers 
reversion (atavism) to an earlier form, and also 
indicates whence the white species has come. We 
can go back a step farther, and trace the Red 
Campion to the Ragged Robin (L. flos-cuculz), which 
grows in bogs and wet meadows with Yellow Iris and 
Cotton-grass. In all essentials this is similar to Red 
Campion, but its rosy petals are deeply cleft into four 
long slender lobes which give the ragged appearance 
indicated in the popular name. In addition to the 
difference in the shape of the petals, we find that each 
flower contains both stamens and pistil, and the seed- 
vessel opens with five teeth only. Ragged Robin 
secures cross-fertilisation by bringing its anthers to 
maturity and shedding its pollen before the stigmas 
are ready to receive it. The honey induces insect- 
visitors to act as pollen-carriers from flower to flower, 
and from plant to plant. Bees, butterflies, and long- 
tongued flies are the carriers, and they cannot get at 
the honey without dusting the proboscis with pollen 
in one flower and transferring it to the stigmas of 
the next. 
The genus Silene (“Catchflies”) differs from 
Lychnis in the fact that there are usually only three 
styles, but the general structure and habits of the 
species are the same, and point to the two genera 
having a common ancestor not far back in the evolu- 
tion of the race. One species, the Bladder Campion, 
or White-bottle (Silene cucubalus), resembles the 
White Campion at a little distance, but its calyx 
is greatly distended, and of a smooth parchmenty 
character that quite justifies the title of Bladder. 
The flowers are of three kinds: (1) with stamens only, 
(2) with pistil only, (3) with both stamens and pistil. 
