398 THE FERTILISATION OF FLOWERS. [PARY TIT, 
they are only capable of fecundation at five stigmatic spots close 
beneath the lower border of the disk (0, 14,4). The column, which: 
really consists of the united staminal filaments, bears at its upper 
end five anthers. The anthers lie close around the stigma-disk ; 
each of them lodges two flattened pollefi-masses (7, 4, 9, 10,11) in 
two pouches (%, 6), which are open internally, and are indicated 
externally by slight swellings (d, d, 3, 4,5). A thin membranous 
process of the anther (¢, 5, 14) rests upon the top of the stigma-disk, 
and on each side the anther is produced into a triangular mem- 
branous expansion (ala or anther-wing) (¢, 3, 5, 14), which stands 
out perpendicular to the column close to the corresponding process 
of the adjacent anther. Between the two adjacent processe 
of each pair of anthers, there is left only a very narrow slit which 
is distinctly wider at its lower end (f, 3, 4). The slit leads into an 
elongated space which we may call the stigmatic chamber (0, 4, 14); 
for about the middle of its vertical height the stigma is exposed 
At the upper end of the slit, visible from the outside, is a bright, 
black body (corpusculum) of regular shape (g, 1 to 14), which is 
seen on closer examination to be a thin, hard, horny lamina. Its 
sides are bent forward for its whole length so that their edges lie 
close together, and in the middle of its lower border is a wedge 
shaped shit. To this corpusculum the two adjacent pollinia of two 
neighbouring anthers are attached by bands (retinacula)! which 
lie hidden beneath the anthers (h, 4, 9, 13). « 
The upper end of the column carries, besides the five anthers, 
five hollow, fleshy, foliar organs (eweulli), which secrete a large 
quantity of honey; they stand opposite to the anthers, and from 
each an incurved pointed process proceeds, the upper extremity of 
which rests upon the top of the stigma-disk, and lying on the 
superior membranous process of the anthers (c) keeps the whol 7 
firmly in place. | 
This singular apparatus acts in the following way :— ; 
Insects (bees, wasps, flies) which creep about the umbels in 
search of honey, attracted by the sweet scent of the flowers, slip 
upon the smooth parts of the flower until a foot enters the wid 
inferior part of a slit, in which at last it gets a firm hold. Whe 
the insect tries to draw its foot out in order to proceed furthe 
the diverging claws are caught by the apposed edges of the anther- 
wings, and guided upwards in the slit, so that one or other of the 
two claws is brought without fail into the notch in the lower 
border of the corpusculum and there held fast. Ifthe insect now 
* These structures are not in any sense homologous with the retinaewla of Orchids. 
