LIFE HISTORIES OF FAMILIAR PLANTS 



makes fertilisation almost certain ; and in view of 

 the fact that the stigma matures just before the 

 stamens, it is usually cross-fertilisation that is 

 effected ; for, early in the year when the daffodil 

 opens its flowers, they are eagerly sought for by 

 the humble- and honey-bees. 



That which most excites our curiosity in con- 

 nection with the crown of the daffodil is : How 

 it ever came to be. Outside its own group there 

 are no lilies or other related types that to my 

 knowledge, give any hint of ever having possessed 

 a similar vestibule to their floral chamber. We 

 should observe that the daffodil's crown distinctly 

 shows six sinuous lobes at its edges. We may 

 reasonably assume, therefore, that the tube origi- 

 nated from six parts. Now, it is apparent that 

 these parts could not be the three sepals and 

 the three petals, because those organs still exist. 



Turning to the garden narcissus we find that 

 the crown there consists of only a wavy edging 

 around the mouth of the flower. Let us imagine 

 this same narcissus at an earlier stage, just before its 

 petals and sepals had properly coalesced around 

 the ovary. Then this wavy edging must have 

 consisted of six little scales, one on each sepal and 

 one on each petal. In the Pink family (which 

 belongs to the dicotyledons, or class which bears 

 fivefold flowers) we find frequent examples of 

 such scale-like appendages on the petals, and the 

 botanist terms them ligules. The Red and the 

 White Lychnis {Lychnis vespertina and Z. diurna)y 

 found almost everywhere in Britain, present 



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