92 THE TLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GDIDE. 



round-leafed mallow is small and unattractive, but tlie stigma bends down amongst 

 the stamens, and tlie services of insects are not needed. A similar fact is to be 

 noticed in the various branches of the geranium family. In some of the larger 

 varieties the stamens do not come to maturity till the stigma is shrivelled up ; 

 ■whilst in the smaller the stamens fertilize the stigma themselves. Of the 

 three classes mentioned, the process of fertilization when the stamens and pistils 

 are on different plants, or on different flowers on the same plant, is well 

 known. In those in which the maturity of the stamens and pistils takes place at 

 various times, some of the provisions are very interesting. In the aristolochia, a 

 long, tubular llower, there is a fringe of little hairs, all pointing inward-i. Here 

 the pistil matures before the stamens. Flies go inside, and are entrapped by the 

 hairs, which, sloping inwards, prevent their egress till the stamens have matured, 

 and the prisoner is covered with their pollen. Then the hairs shrivel up, and the 

 insect flies oft' to fertilize other plants. In the arum, the well-known lord and 

 lady, a precisely similar arrangement is observable. In the nasturtium and several 

 other plants, on the other hand, the anthers shed their pollen, and die before the 

 stigma appears. The common iieath has a pistil like the clapper of a bell, with a 

 ring of stamens, each anther having a curious process attaolied to it, filling up 

 the space. A bee thrusting up his proboscis comes in contact with the pislil ; and 

 if his proboscis is covered witli pollen, fertilizes it. If not, he goes on till he 

 touches tlie processes which separate the chain of anthers. Each anther has a 

 hole in it, which h blocked up by its neighbour, and when this separation takes 

 place, the pollen runs out of this on to the bee's head. In the common white 

 nettle, and in the salvia, the provisions for fertilization are very striking. The 

 Umhelliferce, of which the carrot is an instance, have masses of small flowerets. 

 Here the stamens mature first, and the pollen is rubbed ofi' on to the underside of 

 the bees, and so conveyed to the pistils of neighbouring plants. 



The common daisy is an example of the compositis. It is a bunch of tiny 

 flowerets, the outer ones red and white, and the inner ones yellow tubes. The 

 anthers are at the top of these tubes, and the pollen falls into them. The pistils 

 then push up in these tubes, and force the pollen out. Wlien the pollen is removed 

 the pistils come out, and divide into two stigmas. In the sweet pea and Its kindred 

 flowers with five petals — namely, the standard, the two wings, and the two forming 

 the keel, the pressure of a bee alighting forced out the stamens, and in the early 

 purple orchis a bee's proboscis on going in brings out, attached to it, the two pollen 

 masses, an experiment which can be made with a blade of grass. In the lady's- 

 alipper, an insect on entering huds the outlet closed, and can only make his way- 

 out at the top of the flower. Passing by the stigma he gets smeared with a 

 sticky substance, to which tlie pollen attaches itself and is borne away to other 

 plants. The cowslip and primrose present the feature of some of the flowers on 

 one plant having pistils at the top and stamens at the bottom, and others the re- 

 verse. A bee plunging his proboscis into one of them lias one part of it brought 

 into contact with the stamen, and the other with the stigma. In the next flower, 

 perliaps, the part that touched the stamen comes into contact with a stigma, 

 ■whilst that which touched a stigma gathers a supply of pollen from a stamen. 

 In the lythrura, with its stamens and pistils ot different lengths, this is also 

 instanced. It has been proved bj' Darwin's experiments that a lythrum fertilized 

 by the pollen of flowers of a different arrangement to its own gives better developed 

 Beed. 



If insects have an influence on flowers, flowers hav3 one on insects, notably on 

 bees. The mouths and legs of bees dift'er from those of other insects. The lips 

 of bees are greatly modified. A wasp can only get honey from such flowers as 

 that of the ivy, whilst a halictus or a bumble-bee can plunge its proboscis into 

 almost any flower, save such as the honeysuckle, which are for motlis and butter- 

 flies. Similarly the prosopis has a bare leg, the halictus a hairier leg, and the 

 common hive-bee and bumble-bee very hairy legs, and an arrangament of the 

 thighs for carrying home masses of pollen moistened by honey. The sleep of 

 flowers is another question worth attention. Certain flowers sleep at night, and 

 others only bloom at night. The last are sweet and pale-coloured, so that they 

 might be conspicuous, and are without the spots and stripes that served to attract 

 insects in the day-blooming flowers, but which would not be noticed by night. 

 Other flowers onlj' open at certain hours of the day, when the insects which fer- 



