BELL-FLOWER TRIBE 201 



ovary as if to guaiTl it from injury : these points touch the style, and keep 

 the anthers parallel and in contact with it, till they shrivel up and fall back, 

 which happens immediately after the flower unfolds. The style is a taper 

 stiff column, about the length of the corolla, and shorter than the stamens. 

 It is covered all over, up to the very tips of the stigma, with stiff hairs ; 

 which Nature has provided to sweep the pollen out of the cells of the anthers, 

 as the style passes through them in lengthening ; if it were not for this 

 simple but eflectual contrivance, as the anthers burst as soon as ever the 

 corolla opens, their pollen would drop out of the nodding flowers, and be lost, 

 before the stigma was expanded and ready to receive the fertilizing influence. 



" Next let us look at the ovary. This organ is, in the Harebell, a case 

 containing three cavities, or cells, surrounding a central axis ; in each cell 

 there is a large fleshy receptacle, over which is spread a multitude of ovules. 

 After the stigma is fertilized, the corolla and the stamens drop off; the 

 sepals harden, enlarge, and collapse ; all the parts become browner and 

 thicker ; stout ribs appear on the substance of the ovary, which droops still 

 more than the flower itself ; and at last a general dryness, hardness and 

 brownness announce that the ripening of the fruit is accomplished. But how 

 are the dust-like seeds ever to find their way out of the lidless box, or to 

 penetrate its tough sides 1 Considering what happens in so many other 

 plants, we should naturally expect that it would take place by a separation 

 of the edges of the three carpels into valves near their points ; but upon 

 looking at the top of the ovary, between the sepals, we find that part still 

 tougher than the sides, and without the slightest appearance of an opening. 

 It is by a rending of the thinnest part of the sides of the fruit in the fork of 

 the principal ribs that these valves are produced, and that Nature provides 

 for the escape of the seeds ; the rending takes place upon the final drying of 

 the sides of the fruit, when every part becomes stretched so tight, that any 

 weak portion must of necessity give way. As the stretching takes place 

 with uniformity, and as the skin at the forks of the ribs is always more 

 tender than any other part, the opening of the valves will consequently 

 occur with the same invariable certainty as the formation of the seeds." 



This exquisitely adapted contrivance of His hand who has made "summer 

 and winter," and decked with beauty the lilies of the field, is not confined to 

 the Harebell, but is shared by all the plants of the genus. But there is a 

 significance in the arrangement of stamens and pistil, and the earlier 

 maturity of the former, that was not realized in Lindley's day. It is now 

 known that the pollen is not stored up until the stigmas expand, but is all 

 carried off by bees before that event, and much of it is used for the fertilisa- 

 tion of Harebells that have flowered a little earlier. From the hangino- 

 position of the flower, and the fact that the inner walls are studded with 

 stiff hairs, bees find it more convenient to alight on the style and climb up 

 it to the honey-glands. In so doing their hairy faces and under sides clear 

 off much of the pollen, a process completed by the visits of successive bees. 

 Then the closed stigmas stretch out their arms, and the alighting bees bring 

 their pollen-smeared under sides in contact wath the sensitive surface and 

 effect fertilisation with pollen brought from a younger flower. 



5. Giant Bell-flower (C. latifoUa). — Stem erect, slightly angular; 



IL— 26 



