THE FLOWER. 3 I 



same in any two of the 1 70,000 species of flowers known 

 to science, but the following eight examples illustrate 

 the most characteristic modifications of flower structure, 

 viz., irregularity, addition, suppression, cohesion, adhesion, 

 spiral insertion, displacement and modification, (i) One 

 sepal becomes quite wregular in the Larkspur, as it is 

 necessary for it to be brought back into a long spur 

 to hold the honey. The length is very nearly that 

 of the bumble bee's proboscis, being from 7-12 mm. 



(2) Of additions we have an example in the Poppy, 

 which has an enormous number of stamens, be- 

 cause, being without honey, it has to form a sort 

 of bush of stamens to attract insects. Again, the 

 Grass of Parnassus has no honey, and hence its petals 

 are of two kinds; those of the one type are large and 

 attractive, whilst the others are fringes of hairs which 

 end in glistening knob-like heads : these extremities 

 appear to secrete honey, although they in reality do not, 

 so that insects are deceived into visiting the flower. 



(3) The suppression of stamens in the female flowers 

 of willows is clearly advantageous for crossing. In 

 Veronica, where there are only two stamens instead of 

 five, the pollination explains the absence of the others, 

 for the usual visitor, a hover-fly, gathers the two stamens 

 under its body to act as a supporting platform while its 

 head enters the flower ; any other stamens would be 

 useless or in the wa)^ In the Buckthorn there are 

 only five stamens, and these, instead of being, as they 

 should be, between the petals, are opposite them. The 

 petals are in this case little arched domes which obvi- 

 ously protect the pollen from rain, and hence these 

 particular stamens have been kept out of the ten which 

 the flower no doubt possessed originally. (4) In all 

 cases in which either sepals, petals, stamens or carpels 



