40 FLOWERS OF THE HILLS AND DRY PLACES 



point where they fork, pointing upwards, and they sweep the pollen 

 out of the cylinder, which is 8-10 mm. long, 1 mm. wide. Pollen 

 lines the cylinder in the first stage, and in the second the style projects 

 with 2 rows of papillse 5-7 mm. above the corolla divisions. The 

 filaments are sensitive, protecting the pollen. When an insect touches 

 them they contract and the anthers do so also, so that pollen is 

 squeezed out upon the stigma, which does not lengthen. 



Many flowerheads are pollinated by bees' visits simultaneously. 

 The visitors are Hymenoptera, Megachile, Osmia, Cazlioxys, Stelis, 

 .-Indrena, Halictus, Bombus, Psanimophila; Lepidoptera, Vanessa, 

 Satyrus, Macroglossa\ a beetle, Coccinella, and a Hemipterous insect 

 Capsus. 



The fruit is provided with several rows of barbed and toothed 

 pappus or hair, which assist in dispersing the fruits by aid of the 

 wind. 



This handsome thistle is a sand-loving plant, addicted to a dry 

 sand soil. 



A beetle, Apion onopordi, and the flies, Trypeta lapp&, Urophora 

 macnira, Eusina sonclii, Acidia heraclei, are to be discovered on it. 



Onopordon, Pliny, is Greek from onos, ass, and perdo, break wind; 

 and Acanthium from acanthos, spine,, 



Cotton Thistle is called Argentine Thistle, Asses' Cotton, Down, 

 Oat, Queen Mary's, Scotch, and Silver Thistle. It is called Queen 

 Mary's Thistle because her attendants brought it to Fotheringay, and 

 Down Thistle because it is covered with wool or down. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



172. Onopordon Acanthium, L. Stem tall, winged, leaves rough, 

 cottony both sides, oblong, flowerhead large, purple, involucre sub- 

 globose, phyllaries spreading, imbricate, spinose. 



Autumn Gentian (Gentiana Amarella, L.) 



One of the Arctic types of plants, there is, nevertheless, no evidence 

 of the occurrence of this plant in early deposits. Its present distribu- 

 tion is the North Temperate and Arctic Zones in Arctic Europe, 

 Siberia, Dahuria. In Great Britain it is found in the Peninsula, 

 Channel, and Thames provinces, except in W. Kent, E. Essex; in 

 Anglia, except in Hunts; in the Severn province; in S. Wales only in 

 Pembroke; in the whole of N. Wales; in the Trent province, and 

 in the Mersey, Humber, Tyne, and Lakes provinces, except in the 

 Isle of Man; in the E. Lowlands, except in Peebles, Selkirk, and 



