230 The Romance of Wild Flowers 
other uninvited guests are kept out by a fringe of 
long hairs above the level of the anthers, which 
closes the opening against weak insects. ‘The 
two-lobed stigma matures slightly in advance 
of the anthers, and on receiving pollen from 
another flower the lobes close up, so as to 
leave the way more open to the anthers, that 
their pollen may be taken to younger flowers. 
The similar Felwort (G. amarella) has five- 
lobed pale-purple flowers. They are both 
adapted for fertilisation by bees and butter- 
flies, and as they grow among grass—the 
| former in moist pastures, the latter in dry 
Field Gentian Pastures and on downs—the lobes of the 
flower are spread out to make it more con- 
spicuous from above. 
The foregoing are annuals, but the Marsh Gentian 
(G. pneumonanthe) is a perennial, found locally on 
marshy heaths. Its corolla, though slender, is more 
bell-shaped than the foregoing, greenish on the 
outside, but lined with bright blue. There is no 
forbidding fringe of hairs as in the previous species, 
simply because such a provision is unnecessary with 
the other special arrangements of the interior. About 
half-way down, the corolla becomes abruptly narrow, 
and to this point a bee can creep. Here it finds the 
anthers pressed round the style, and gets its under-side | 
powdered with pollen. It is still half an inch away 
from the honey, and unless its tongue be that length 
cannot reach it: it is therefore only certain bees, 
butterflies, and moths that find it worth while to 
attempt to get it: the stamens mature before the 
stigma, so that if an older flower is next visited by 
