FERTILIZATION. 
165 
flowers. Irregular flowers probably always are more or less 
adapted to particular insect (or other) visitors. The adapta- 
tions are so numerous that many volumes could be filled with 
a description of them;—here only a 
very few of the simpler ones will be 
pointed out. Where there is a droop- 
ing lower petal (or, in the case of a 
gamopetalous corolla, a lower lip), this 
serves as a perch upon which flying in- 
sects may alight and stand while they 
explore the flower, as the beetle is 
doing in Fig. 146. In Fig. 147 one 
bumble-bee stands with his legs par- 
tially encircling the lower lp of the 
dead nettle flower, while another 
perches on the sort of grating made 
by the stamens of the horse-chestnut 
Fic. 146. — A Beetle on the 
Flower of the Twayblade. 
(Enlarged four times.) 
flower. The honey-bee entering the violet clings to the 
beautifully bearded portion of the two lateral petals, while it 
sucks the nectar from the spur beneath. 
Fic. 147. — Bees visiting Flowers. 
At the left a bumble-bee (European) on the flower of the dead nettle; above a 
similar bee in the flower of the horse-chestnut ; below, a honey-bee in the flower 
of a violet. 
