8 



FLOWERS OF THE HILLS AND DRY PLACES 



The flower does not require to expand, the parts of the flower 

 lying open. The honey-glands secrete honey. The anthers bend down, 

 open, and rise up towards the honey-disk. Three or four carpels de- 

 velop papillae. The stigma projects considerably above the middle of 

 the flower, forming a resting-place for insects, and is covered with 

 pollen from other flowers. If insects do not visit it self-pollination 

 ensues. The visitors are Hymenoptera (Apidse), Prosopis communis, 

 Apis mellifica, Andrena. Prosopis, a bee with a trowel-like proboscis, 



DYER'S WEED (Reseda Luteola) 



is enabled to lift the box formed by the petals over the honey-disk, and 

 in so doing touches the stigma, and becomes dusted also with pollen. 



The seeds are dispersed by the wind. The capsules opening above 

 the seeds are blown out beyond the area of the parent plant, aided by 

 the wind. 



Dyer's Weed is a sand plant, requiring a sand soil, and at the same 

 time is a lime-loving plant, subsisting on a lime soil, being found in 

 chalky or oolitic districts. 



No fungi are parasitic on this plant. The Thysanoptera Melano- 

 thrips obesa, sEolothrips parasitica, and the Lepidoptera, Bath White 

 (Pieris Daplidice] and Scarce-bordered Straw (Heliothis armiger) feed 

 on it, as also Bright-line Brown-eye (Mamestra oleracea). 



Pliny gave the name Reseda, from resedo, I calm, because it was 

 supposed to be a sedative. Luteola is a diminutive of lutea, yellow. 



