240 The Romance of Wild Flowers 
little on every stigma they touch. This is not a very 
precise method, because it will produce self-fertilisation 
if an insect happens to visit one flower twice; but 
then the Forget-me-nots are not dead-set against 
self-fertilisation, for there is always a chance of pollen 
being shaken down from the anthers to the stigma. 
In M. versicolor, if fertilisation has not been effected 
by other methods, there is still a certainty that it will 
take place, under the following conditions. When 
the flower opens, it is yellow, and the style is so long 
that the stigma stands out beyond the mouth of the 
corolla, but afterwards the corolla becomes blue, and 
lengthens until the anthers are brought up to the 
level of the stigma. 
In the Wood Forget-me-not (MV. sylvatica) the style 
is much shorter than the corolla-tube, so that pollen 
may be shaken down from the anthers just inside the 
mouth of the tube ; but it 1s much visited by flies and 
bees, and crosses must be frequent. The Field Forget- 
me-not (W/. arvensis) is similar, but the flowers are 
smaller, and the stigma is on a level with the 
anthers. lour of the native species grow upon 
solid ground where creeping insects are plenti 
_ ful, and they are all more or less hairy; the 
p, calyx, too, is covered with stiff hooked hairs. 
The reason for these is obvious when the 
four little nutlets which constitute the fruits 
of the Forget-me-nots are ripe. These are 
| still protected by the calyx though the 
ce dale corolla has long departed, and they are 
Forget-me-not USUally highly polished, so that they may 
easily slip through vegetation and into chinks 
in the soil. But they want to be carried from 
