DOG'S MERCURY AND PLANTAIN. 139 



which happens to pass that way. After the 

 pistils have faded, the stamens ripen, and 

 hang out at the end of long waving filaments, 

 so as to discharge all their pollen with 

 effect On each spike of blossoms the lower 

 flowerets open first ; and so, if you pick a 

 half-blown spike, you will see that all the 

 stamens are ripe below, and all the pistils 

 above. Were the opposite arrangement to 

 occur, the pollen would fall from the stamens 

 to the lower flowers of the same stalk ; but 

 as the pistils below have always been fer- 

 tilised and withered before the stamens ripen, 

 there is no chance of any such accident and 

 its consequent evil results. Thus one can 

 see clearly that the plantain has become 

 wholly adapted to wind-fertilisation, and as a 

 natural effect has all but lost its bright- 

 coloured corolla. 



Common groundsel is also a case of the 

 same kind ; but here the degradation has not 

 gone nearly so far. I venture to conjecture, 

 therefore, that groundsel has been embarked 



