Geraniums 125 
wards, to prevent creeping insects reaching the 
flowers and stealing honey or pollen. There is 
reason for this precaution, and for the beard of hairs 
upon the lower part of every petal, to keep small 
flying insects from reaching the honey without 
rendering service. The five-celled ovary bears a long 
thick style divided at the top into five branches. 
Now, when the flower opens, these five branches 
or stigmas are pressed closely together, with their 
stigmatic surfaces within. At this time the ten 
stamens lie flat upon the petals at right angles with 
the style; they are not quite mature. Then five of 
them erect themselves so that the anthers are close 
tothe immature stigmas. They shed their pollen, and 
fall back to their original positions, whilst the other 
five erect themselves, shed their pollen, and also fall 
back. Now comes the turn of the stigmas: the five 
close-pressed arms of the style separate and stand 
widely apart, their stigmatic surfaces ready for the 
reception of pollen. The pollen of that flower is all 
gone, so that if the seed-eggs in the ovary are to be 
fertilised at all, it must be by pollen brought from 
another flower. Such a central support as is thus 
afforded first by the stamens, then by the stigmas, is 
at once taken advantage of by bees and butterflies as 
an alighting-stage whence they can extend their long 
tongues straight down to the honey-glands at the 
base of the ovary. I need not describe how the 
insect that alights on a young flower will get its 
under side well covered by pollen-grains, which will 
be detached by the adhesive stigmas when an older 
flower is visited. In all probability some visitors 
may prefer to alight on the petals, and these would, 
