148 The Romance of Wild Flowers 
Miiller, it appears that the male bees on finding they 
have been deceived go off in disgust; but the more 
thrifty females, after assuring themselves there is no 
honey, start collecting pollen, and so get something 
for their trouble. There are two forms of this 
species—one, more or less prostrate, is covered with 
sticky and evil-smelling hairs; the other, erect, not 
sticky or foetid, but armed with spines. Now this 
difference has evident relation to habit, the plant 
being rendered offensive in the one case to creeping 
things, and in the other to larger browsing animals. 
That the spines do make the erect form objectionable 
is no new discovery, for the ancient Greeks believed 
that no animal but an ass was foolish enough to 
attempt it, so they called it Ononis. 
The Dyer’s Greenweed (Genista tinctoria) is also 
without honey, and the ten stamens are all united, 
yet bees come to it for pollen, which is shed in the 
keel before the flower opens. As a fact, it may be 
said that the flower does not fully open until the 
bee alights upon it, for until then the standard is 
scarcely raised and the wings are locked to the keel, 
which in turn keeps the long curved pistil in a state 
of great tension. The weight of the bee causes both 
wings and keel to drop away, the stamens and pistil 
spring up to the standard, and the pollen falls in a 
shower over the bee. On the bee flying off, the wings 
and keel do not recover their former position, but 
hang down, whilst pistil and stamens remain close to 
the standard, so that on pollen-covered bees seeking 
more pollen they are likely to leave some on the 
stigma. Henslow found that if protected from insect- 
visits the flowers never open. 
