386 Dr Fulton on the Infiorescence, Floral Structure, and 



tendency to retain the ascending habit, much more inter- 

 fertilisation than cross-fertilisation would be produced, 

 thus diminishing fertility and weakening the progeny. 

 The plants will therefore gain by being protected from 

 bees; and this conclusion furnishes a clue to the ex- 

 planation of many of the peculiarities of the floral 

 arrangements. 



The characters which render them comparatively unat- 

 tractive to bees appear to be the absence of a conspicuous 

 corolla, of agreeable odour, the peculiar shape of the 

 corolla, and, still more, the comparative paucity and wide 

 separation of the flowers. The inconspicuousness of the 

 corolla depends partly on its small size, and partly on its 

 dull colour. The size is adapted for the head of the wasp, 

 and this explanation miglit sufiB.ce, but for the fact that 

 it is too small to secure the nectar and pollen from rain. 

 After a shower a considerable number of the flowers have 

 their pollen and nectar spoilt, even when such apparently 

 unprotected flowers as those of Teucrium Scorodonia are 

 unwetted ; and after a few hours of wind and rain the 

 majority are full of water, and though wasps very soon 

 begin to frequent the racemes they find very few worth 

 alighting on. Kerner, Miiller, and others have shown the 

 admirable and often elaborate provisions provided in most 

 flowers to protect these substances from rain, and their 

 variety and commonness prove their importance. But in 

 Scrophularia it seems to be less injurious to occasionally 

 lose nectar and pollen, and to suffer a temporary suspen- 

 sion of cross-fertilisation, than to protect them at the risk of 

 encouraging the visits of bees ; for, in order also to secure 

 that the nectar remain visible to the comparatively stupid 

 wasp, and accessible to its truncated mouth-organs, such 

 protection would imply amplification of the corolla, and this 

 would entail the disadvantage of increased conspicuousness. 

 Again, the most striking feature of the mouth of the 

 corolla is the absence of any labellum, or foothold and 

 platform for operations, so common in flowers adapted for 

 bees. It looks like one of the latter reversed, and I have 

 observed bees to slip from the corolla, especially when col- 

 lecting pollen. The remarkable colour also points to the 

 same conclusion. It resembles that of other wasp-fer- 



