HOW FLOWERS CLUB TOGETHER. 135 



I will give no further examples of wind- 

 fertilised flowers. If you look for yourself you 

 can find dozens on all sides in the fields around 

 you. They may almost always be recognised by 

 these two marked features of the hanging stamens 

 and the feathery stigma. 



Before I pass on to another subject, however, 

 I ought to mention that by no means all flowers 

 are regularly cross-fertilised. There are some 

 degraded types in which self-fertilisation has be- 

 come habitual. In these plants, which are usually 

 poor and feeble weeds like groundsel and shep- 

 herd's purse, the stamens bend round so as to 

 impregnate the pistil in the same blossom. In 

 other less degraded cases the flower is occasion- 

 ally cross-fertilised by insect visits; but if no 

 insect turns up in time, the stamens, even in 

 handsome and attractive blossoms, often bend 

 round and impregnate the pistil. A very good 

 example of this is seen in our smaller English 

 mallow, which has large mauve flowers to attract 

 insects; but should none come to visit it, the 

 stamens and stigmas at last intertwine, and self- 

 fertilisation takes place, for want of better. Still, 

 as a general rule, it holds good that self-fertilisa- 

 tion belongs to scrubby and degraded plants; it 

 is only adopted as a last resort when all other 

 means fail by the superior species. 



CHAPTER X. 



HOW FLOWERS CLUB TOGETHER. 



In the preceding chapters I have dealt for the 

 most part with individual flowers; I have spoken 



