LIFE HISTORIES OF FAMILIAR PLANTS 



pale-coloured (owing to its being covered with 

 tiny white hairs) and divided into two lateral 

 pointed parts ; behind these are pollen-producing 

 stamens just developing, and farther behind are 

 the enclosing green parts of the flower. Of course, 

 a fly or a bee, dusted well with pollen, on reaching 

 these later-developed flowers, instead of clinging 

 to the stamens as it moved amongst them — as it is 

 seen doing in the top left-hand corner in Fig. 15 

 (Plate 11) — would have to hold to the central 

 object in each flower while it searched for nectar 

 around the base of the hairy part below. Now 

 the divided part on the end of this central object 

 is both rough and sticky, and as the fly rubs 

 against it some of the pollen is sure to be con- 

 veyed to it. In fact, if you saw it under a 

 magnifying lens after a dusty fly had visited the 

 flower, it would appear as shown in Fig. 17 

 (Plate 12), the irregularities on its surface being 

 due to the tiny pollen grains adhering to it. 



Having consumed all the available nectar, the 

 fly then leaves the flower to visit another bloom, 

 still carrying plenty of pollen with it to pollinate 

 other stigmas, or its next visit may be to a branch 

 where pollen only is being produced, and there it 

 will gather more of the fertihsing element. And 

 that is what the fly has been doing for the flower ; 

 it has polhnated its stigma, which then permits 

 the ovary to develop until it becomes — what ? 

 That we have now to witness. 



The plant has produced an abundance of 

 flowers, each of which was well provided with 



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