Primrose and Pimpernel 255 
never seen a pollen-collecting humble-bee alight on 
a long-styled flower; it seems to recognise them at 
some distance and to avoid them.” These humble- 
bees, in truth, are exceedingly clever, for they often 
act towards Primroses as they do to Clovers and other 
plants with narrow nectaries: instead of entering the 
flower in the legitimate way, they approach it from 
beneath and bite through the nectary near the honey- 
glands, and so get their wages without earning them 
by fertilising the plant. 
The Loosestrifes (Lysimachia) are a small group of 
diverse species, two being of erect growth and two 
prostrate trailers, all w ith yellow flowers. The 
Yellow Loosestrife (L. vulgaris), so called to dis- 
tinguish it from the Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum 
salicaria), has two distinct forms of flowers, the 
short - styled form having two _ short stamens 
which fertilise in the absence of insects. The 
five petals are connected at their base, and dotted 
with orange within. The five stamens are united 
below into a tube, and attached to the corolla; ap- 
parently there is no production of honey. The seed- 
capsule is round, and the upper portion splits into five 
triangular segments to discharge the seeds. Of the 
trailers the best known is the Creeping Jenny, or 
Moneywort (L. nummularia), which is commonly 
cultivated in gardens, and is said never to produce 
seed in this country. This would appear to indicate 
that it is not a true native but an introduction from 
the Continent, fertilised there by an insect that does 
not exist in England. On the-other hand, it may be 
that the plant having taken to rooting from the 
_ joints of the stem as it runs along the moist earth, 
*J 
