74 SA GA CITY A ND MORALITY OF PLANTS. 



ficial, for there is no mass of foliage to interfere 

 with the wind carrying the pollen to the female 

 flowers, as there would have been had not these 

 plants selected the best time for inflorescence. Many 

 other wind -fertilised plants flower early in the year, 

 as the Dog's Mercury, etc., although these have no such 

 necessity for limiting themselves to this early season ; 

 for, being humble herbaceous plants, they have no 

 great amount of foliage to mask their flowers and 

 hinder their being crossed. The Hops take their time 

 — leafing first, masking the hedgerows they have 

 conquered by wood-craft with their beautiful leaves, 

 and then placing their flowers (always on separate 

 plants) triumphantly in the best spots for the summer 

 breezes to carry the pollen, and to act as their 

 marriage priests. In the grasses, another device is in 

 vogue. The pollen bags, or anthers of the stamens, 

 ripen within the closed doors of the flowers, pro- 

 tected from wet and chance cold by the waterproof, 

 chaffy scales. When the pollen within the anthers 

 is thoroughly ripe, the stalks or filaments which 

 bear them grow very rapidly, and so lift or thrust 

 the anthers outside the flowers, where they dangle 

 so that the slightest puff of wind detaches and 

 carries away the pollen. 



All genuine wind-fertilised flowers — big and little, 

 herbaceous, shrubby, and arboreal, no matter to what 

 order they may belong — have evolved a similar 

 generalised structure for their pistils. As the latter 



