260 Mr. T. H. Farrer on the Mechanism for 
If the above observations are correct, this looks like a very 
curious and elaborate mechanism in order to secure the fer- 
tilization of one flower by the pollen of another. The form 
and position of the wings, their partial cohesion with the keel, 
the spiral and partly tubular keel, the delicate flexible fila- 
ments of the stamens, the moist and sticky pollen, the strong 
elastic column of the style, its spiral form, the position and 
character of the stigma, the brush that sweeps out the an- 
thers, the motion of the style on the bee’s visit (which first 
brings the stigma into contact with his proboscis, and then, 
when it has swept him clear of the pollen of a former flower, 
brings the brush loaded with its own pollen into contact with 
the proboscis, and deposits its load with him, and finally 
allows him to withdraw without touching the stigma again) 
are surely a number of very remarkable and elaborate adapta- 
tions, all apparently tending to the transportation of pollen 
from one flower to another. 
Mechanism for Fertilization of the common Blue Lobelia. 
The corolla has a broad lip or lower side, so as to afford a 
standing-place to insects; the tube is slit on the upper side, 
so as to afford play to stamens and pistils. 
The stamens have hard, syngenesious anthers, and separate, 
flexible filaments, which are attached to the calyx at some 
distance from the base of the style, so that they look like 
shrouds to a mast. The two on the lower side are the shortest 
when the flower opens, and look as if they pulled the anthers 
downwards. 
The anther-tube is open at the top in the early bud, but 
closes before the flower opens, and then again opens by a very 
small aperture, which is at this stage, in consequence of the 
bending over of the upper anthers, pointed downwards at right 
angles to the mouth of the tube of the corolla. Out of the top 
of the connective of the two lowest anthers grows a cluster of 
short thick bristles in a downward direction across the mouth 
of the tube of the corolla. The anthers are very hard exter- 
nally, and internally very soft; they open inwards when the 
flower opens. There is an abundance of dry powdery yellow 
ollen. 
The style is surrounded imme- 
diately below the stigma by a ring 
of bristles, which are developed in 
the bud at an early stage, and point 
outwards and upwards until the 
stigma is fully developed. The 
stigma remains inside the anther-tube when the flower first 
