150 THE NATURE-STUDY OF PLANTS 
the same direction. As one might expect from the 
smallness of the flowers their insect visitors are not 
very numerous, but self-pollination takes place readily 
in their absence. 
Thus between these two species, the Meadow 
Cranesbill and the Storksbill, the contrast is great 
alike in the form or forms and in the natural history 
of the flowers. The other Cranesbills present us with 
many gradations between these two extremes, so far 
as the pollination arrangements are concerned, but 
the perennial species are sometimes hard to come by, 
and the smallness of the blossoms of the annuals rather 
discounts their attractions for the hobby-botanist ; 
the student, however, should consult the Tables at 
the end on pp. 162-163 for information. I must add 
that the period that elapses between pollination and 
the ripening of the Storksbill’s fruit is again three 
weeks, but we must now leave the flowers and pass 
on to the history of the seeds. 
The fruit might very well be mistaken for a 
Geranium’s, for we have the long bill, the five knobs 
enclosed in the calyx, and the same mechanism for 
the first-instance dispersal. 
But there is one great difference between the 
Erodiums and, with one exception, all our own 
Cranesbills, for the Storksbill and the other two 
species throw the seed enclosed in the knob which 
remains attached to the hygroscopic spring. 
This is something quite new to us, for in the Gera- 
niums the seed is either thrown free alike of knob 
and spring, or, if enclosed in the knob the latter does 
not remain attached to its spring, the one exception 
being the Dusky Cranesbill which agrees in this respect 
with the Erodiums, but the dry spring is in a loose 
