444 THE FERTILISATION OF FLOWERS. [PART III. 
or less close above and at the sides of the stigma, turning their 
pollen-covered faces towards it; in many cases they stand so 
close that the pollen in being teea out is directly applied to 
the stigma. 
ee platits which I kept in my room, I have seen Calliphora 
erythrocephala, Mgn. (Muscidze), sucking honey and fertilising the 
flowers. It thrust its proboscis several times into each, and there- 
fore where anthers and stigma had ripened together, it performed 
cross- and self-fertilisation indifferently. 
V. saxatilis, Sep. (V. fruticans, Jacq.).—The small, but brightly 
coloured flowers of this plant are fairly conspicuous, and secrete 
abundant honey. ‘The visitors are numerous, and the mechanism 
of fertilisation is the same as that of V. Chamedrys. 
V. bellidioides, L., has no trace of the special adaptations for 
cross-fertilisation that V. Chamedrys shows. Insect-visitors are 
scarce, and cross-fertilisation can only take place if they happen to 
touch the stigma and anthers with different parts of their bodies. 
V. alpina, L.—The tiny flowers are very rarely visited by 
insects, and in dull weather they remain closed and fertilise 
themselves." 
REVIEW OF THE GENUS VERONICA. 
In this genus, as in Polygonum, Geranium, and others, the cer- 
tainty of cross-fertilisation in case of insect-visits, and the abandon- 
ment of the power of self-fertilisation even in absence of insects, 
run parallel with the conspicuousness of the flowers and the con- 
sequent certainty of their being visited. The chief species that 
we have discussed may be arranged in the following order of 
conspicuousness, taking into account the appearance of the whole 
inflorescence :—(1) V. spicata, (2) V. Chamedrys, (3) V. officinalis, 
(4) V. Beecabunga, (5) V. serpyllifolia, (6) V. hedereefolia. In 
case of insect-visits, cross-fertilisation is rendered absolutely certain 
in the first, and extremely probable in the second of these, but in 
all the rest self-fertilisation is just as likely. In absence of insects, 
on the other hand, self-fertilisation never or very rarely takes place 
in the first and second; in the third it occurs regularly, but only 
when the flower withers; in the fourth, it regularly takes place in 
1 Lists of visitors to the following additional species of Veronica are given in my 
Weitere Beobachtungen, Pt. 111.: V. Anagallis, L., V. triphyllos, L., V. arvensis, L. ; 
and the following are discussed and figured in my Alpendlumen : V. alpina, L., 
V. aphylla, L., V. bellidioides, L., V. saxatilis, Sep. 
