120 THE NATURE-STUDY OF PLANTS 
down on the other parts. The hairs on the upper part 
of the bill are not glandular ; they seem, nevertheless, 
to be pretty effective against green fly, owing no 
doubt to their length. 
Until the fruit is ripe the sepals remain close up 
against the swollen base of the bill, where the seeds 

Fia. 48.—Herb Robert (fruit). x14. 
A, ripe; B, unripe. 
are to be found, and it is only when the latter are 
thoroughly mature that the calyx opens. 
When this has happened we find that although the 
petals fell off long ago and the stamens lost their 
anthers, there are ten long transparent scales between 
the sepals and the ovary: they are the filaments of 
the decapitated stamens, now considerably larger 
than during the pollination period, which have 
formed an inner protective wrap around the ripening 
seeds for the last three weeks, for that is the period 
that elapses between pollination and maturity. 
There are five seeds to each flower; one plant 
