CALIFORNIA PLANTS IN THEIR HOMES 



shedding pollen. Next examine an older flower. The 

 inner stamens have risen up and covered the stigmas, their 

 pollen still unshed , but the outer stamens are shedding 

 pollen directly away from the stigmas. Keep this flower in 

 water and examine it from day to day. It will behave very 

 nearly as it does out of doors, closing at night to protect the 

 pollen. You will see that the buttercup takes nearly a week 

 to shed its pollen, the inner anthers rising and taking the 

 place of the outer ones when they are empty. Now dur- 

 ing all this time a bee or any other large insect visiting the 

 flower for honey, is sure to carry away some pollen, not 

 because it is sure to alight in the center of the flower, and 

 so must reach over the anthers to get the honey. You may 

 often see a brisk little bee double himself over the ring of 

 stamens and make a complete circuit of them as he sucks 

 up every drop of honey. He is a very dusty bee when he 

 leaves the flower, and if he goes next to a newly opened 

 flower, many of its stigmas will get the grains of pollen 

 they need for seed-making. 



So the buttercup, with its honest, round, shining face, 

 is well paid for its generous hospitality. But the buttercup 

 knows nothing about economy or exclusiveness. Its bill 

 of fare is well advertised, and all may come ; any insect, 

 large or small, can get its honey and the pollen that collects 

 in its petals, and little beetles, small flies and other tiny, 

 gauzy creatures often alight on the petals, take pollen or 

 honey, and go away without touching anthers or stigma. 



There are some flowers, however, that know how to 

 exclude such useless guests ; the cluster lily, for instance. 

 It may trouble you to make out the calyx and corolla of the 

 cluster lily. Really there are three sepals and three petals, 

 but they are all united to form one purple cup. The six 

 stamens, as you can see by laying the flower open, grow on 

 the inner surface of the cup, three of them having* longer 

 anthers than the other three. Back of these long anthers 



90 



