FLORAL MECHANISMS 115 



endowed with life and voluntary motion, and 

 are able to feel and to move, just as the leaflets 

 of a sensitive plant feel and move. Make the ex- 

 periment upon a blossom of touching the centre 

 with a pin, and you will immediately see the stamens 

 shrink and close toward the pistil, exactly as a sea- 

 anemone closes its little tentacles at the slightest 

 touch. 



The purpose of this wonderful mechanism is very 

 easy to understand. Our front view of the flower 

 shows the blossom as the bee finds it, with the six 

 little stamens wide apart against the petals, their 

 small pollen-chambers open and ready to give up 

 their contents. The first sectional view likewise 

 shows them in the same position. Xow, suppose 

 a bee lands on the flower, and, holding himself in 

 an inverted position, thrusts his long beak and 

 tongue into it and probes the nectar glands in the 

 centre. He is sure to touch some of the sensitive 

 stamens, which immediately respond, curving for- 

 ward and clasping around the intruding proboscis 

 and dusting it with a charge of pollen. 



Let the bee carry some of this to the next blos- 

 som. He will be sure to brush some pollen against 

 the large stigma before the stamens have had time 

 to move up and clasp him as before. Thus the bee 

 will move rapidly, fetching and carrying pollen 



