Peas and Clover 155 
flowers; then as the bees fertilise these they bend 
their foot-stalks, and the flower begins to dry up 
round the swelling ovary and to hang down round 
the common stalk. In this way the fertilised flowers 
never stand in the way of the virgin blossoms, and of 
these the mature specimens are always the outer row 
for the time being. 
The three figures on p. 154 illustrate this 
well. 
In the first of these figures one solitary flower to 
your left hand has been fertilised and has commenced 
to turn down; in the next about a dozen have so 
acted to be out of the way of the younger flowers; 
and in the third every one is fertilised and turned 
down. Here are also figures of 
individual flowers separated, of which 
this is a side view. At first the 
stamens are included in the keel, but 
when a bee alights upon this and 
the wings, pushing its head between 
the keel and the standard in order 
to reach the honey, the keel is so 
depressed that the anthers burst out 
and cover the bee’s under-side with es 
pollen. 
When the bee departs and the pressure is removed, 
the stamens retire to the keel again, and repeat the 
process with other bees until the pollen is exhausted. 
Then the pistil lengthens and the stamens dwindle, 
so that the stigma comes against the bee on the next 
visit and gets fertilised. The top figure on the next 
page shows the upright flower before the bee depresses 
the keel, and the lower one shows a flower from which 
