un] THE FERTILISATION OF FLOWERS. 43 
The centre of the disc is occupied by five anthers, 
which shed their pollen and shrivel up. Their place 
is then taken by five more anthers which have been 
hitherto concealed in the flower-tube, but when they 
have shed their pollen and retired, they are succeeded 
by the stigmas, which are only nowripe. If an insect 
visit one of the younger flowers it can hardly fail to 
brush off some of the pollen, which is almost equally 
certain to be deposited on the stigmas of an older 
flower. But more remarkable is the case of the 
Forget-me-Not, in which the young flowers have 
the stigma protruding a little above the disc, so that ~ 
an insect which has dusted itself with the pollen from 
a neighbouring flower is pretty sure to fertilise it. 
But should this not happen, the plant fertilises itself ; 
the corolla-tube lengthens, so as to bring the stamens 
up to a level with the stigma, when pollen is sure to 
get deposited on the stigma. 
In the Violets and Pansy there is a most curious 
arrangement by means of which the pollen is 
showered down on the bee from above. One of the 
petals is developed back into a 
hollow spur, in which the honey 
is secreted. The anthers are so 
arranged that they form a box 
into which the pollen is deposited 
by the anthers. Through the 
centre of this chamber the pistil | 
passes, the stigma protruding; it Fic. 50 
should also be noted that the 
pistil is bent in a peculiar manner, and that two of the 
anthers have long processes which go back into the 
