SOME PLANT MARRIAGES 



453 



bodies, especially in 

 their recesses, where 

 they rest like ships 

 in harbour. When 

 the little craft hap- 

 pens to get stranded 

 in the recesses of a 

 female Yallisneria 

 flower, they adhere 

 to the trilobed stig- 

 ma, and some of the 

 pollen-cells are sure 

 to be left sticking to 

 the fringes on the 

 margins of the stig- 

 matic surfaces." 

 Pollination having 

 been thus effected, 

 the pedicel of the 

 fertilized liower con- 

 tracts spirally and 

 the ovary descends 

 to the bottom of the 

 water to perfect its 

 seeds. 



We come now to 

 the anemophilous or 

 wind-po llin ate d 

 plants. Most of our 

 forest trees, and the 

 grasses, are exam- 

 ples of this group. 

 Wind is far more ex- 

 tensively employed 

 as a pollen-carrier than water, but is not so bus}' an agent as insects. 

 Flowers which lay themselves out for wind-pollination are characterized 

 by abundance of smooth and dusty pollen ; by stigmas specially adapted 

 for catching and retaining it ; and, as we have seen, by an absence of 

 bright-coloured floral envelopes, perfumes, and honey. ' " The amount of 

 pollen produced by anemophilous plants," says Darwin, ' : and the distance 

 to which it is often transported by the wind are both surprisingly great. 

 Mr. Hassal found that the weight of pollen produced by a single plant 

 of the Bulrush (Typha) was 144 grains. Bucketfuls of pollen, chiefly 

 of Coniferce and Graminew, have been swept off the decks of vessels near 



Photo by] [E. Step 



FIG. 557. COTTON-GRASS (Eriophorum polystachion). 



The Col ton-grasses are Sedge-like plants that cover vast areas of boggy moorland. The 

 " cotton " really consists of delicate bristles which represent the petals of other flowers. 



