THE COMMON PRIMROSE 



the primrose produces nectar in its own utilitarian 

 interests, and offers it to the insects as the price 

 for their services in effecting its poUination. 



It may seem probable to some of my readers 

 that the bee or moth would, when withdrawing its 

 proboscis from the stamens midway in the tube of 

 the ^^pin-e3^ed" form of flower, dust some of the 

 pollen it had gathered on to the stigma in the 

 mouth of the tube, and so bring about self- fertilis- 

 ation, or that it would perhaps convey such pollen 

 to the stigma of another '' pin-eyed " flower rather 

 than to the lower stigma of a ^^ thrum-e3^ed " blos- 

 som where it would prove most fertile. If we 

 pass a bristle down the tube of the flower, such 

 almost invariably happens. However, we are then 

 working with a clumsy tool, but the insect is no 

 such clumsy worker. By means of its legs it 

 balances the flower and adroitly pulls the tube to 

 one side so that its flexible proboscis gets a clear 

 way, and the chances of misplacing the pollen then 

 are very unlikely. Occasionally a careless insect 

 may deposit some pollen wrongly, but condition- 

 ally upon some being properly conveyed, the latter, 

 being more fertile, will hold its own and more 

 quickly effect fertilisation. Indeed, the complex 

 organisation of the flower, so perfectly constructed 

 for the class of insects that patronise it, distinctly 

 points to the conclusion that such insects perform 

 the work of pollination with complete efficiency. 



Thus have the non-sentient tendencies of the 

 primrose, inherited in the course of long ages, 

 attained a degree of high complexity and perfection. 

 G 8i 



