24 PLANT LIFE. 



(viii.) Many tropical flowers, such as the Banana, or 

 the beautiful Lobelia cardinalis, are visited by the 

 Sun-birds and Humming-birds. A great proportion of 

 these flowers have a scarlet colour, and a curved tube 

 which exactly fits the head and beak of the bird. 

 Others, which are visited by these beautiful and lively 

 creatures, have the flowers massed together in large 

 cup-shaped ]i2ads, such as the Proteas^ or Sugarbush of 

 South Africa^ The bird stands on the edge of this cup 

 and plunges its beak into the mass of honey flowers 

 which fills it. There are no bird flowers in the 

 British Flora, at least so far as the writer's knowledge 

 goes ; but sparrows can be seen to dip their beaks into 

 the heads of the Ragwort, after insects, and it is very 

 likely that the flower-haunting habits of the Sunbirds 

 began in this way. 



(ix.) Bats in the tropics also flutter about certain 

 flowers with projecting stamens, and so carry the 

 pollen. 



(x.) Wind is very often utilised for this purpose, and 

 especially in the British Flora. This method involves 

 an enormous expenditure to ensure pollination. The 

 chance of a grain of pollen being blown to the stigma 

 of a flower only one foot away is as the breadth of the 

 stigma to the circumference of a circle wdth one foot 

 radius, that is probably about -yr, taking the stigma 

 as occupying one-eighth of an inch. But if an insect is 

 seated on the flower it will naturally fly to the next 

 which catches its eye. Plants do, however, produce 

 enormous amounts of pollen. The Paeony has 

 3,000,000 to 4,000,000 grains in one flower, and even 

 the Composite floret may have 240,000 pollen grains. 



In Britain, the examples usually given of wind- 

 pollinated flowers are the Pines, most forest trees, 



