LIFE HIvSTORIES OF FAMIIJAR PLANTS 



naturally patronise flowers with numerous sta- 

 mens. The original buttercups, however, were 

 well equipped, possessing both numerous stamens 

 and also nectaries, but as the genera came to differ 

 more and more from the ancestral form, the charac- 

 teristic features of each resulted in differentiat- 

 ing the patronage from their insect visitors ; and 

 since in some instances the pollen was appreciated 

 more than the nectar, in such cases the nectaries 

 slowly lost their function, became obsolete, and 

 eventually disappeared. 



So the clematis now depends entirely upon its 

 scent, its four or five coloured sepals, and its 

 pollen to attract fertihsing insects. In the 

 anemone, however, insects have been observed to 

 pierce some easily perforated tissues at the base of 

 the flower and suck its juices. Also, in the case of 

 the marsh marigold, which, likewise, has a coloured 

 calyx, honey is secreted amongst the carpels. I 

 am inclined to think that both these developments 

 have appeared since the original nectaries were 

 lost, as I suggested in the case of the willow 

 catkins in Chapter X. Probably as time has 

 passed some of the pollen-feeding insects have 

 become scarce, or have changed their habits, and 

 now the marsh marigold and the anemone are 

 again developing their dormant trait and alluring 

 insects by means of honey and liquid food, but 

 from new nectaries, as their original ones, together 

 with their petals, were lost. 



In this manner the anemone and the marsh 

 marigold may probably save themselves from 



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