PART III. | THE MECHANISMS OF FLOWERS. 455 
better protected than in the foregoing species, for the helmet- 
shaped, laterally compressed upper lip covers it both above and at 
the sides, and at first leaves only a narrow slit, which is slightly 
more dilated just below the anthers to admit the bee’s proboscis. 
Honey is not secreted by the ovary itself, but by a development of 
the receptacle, which is prolonged downwards and forwards into a 
long, fleshy lobe, turned up at the edges (w, 4). As in Huphrasia 
officinalis, so also inthis plant, two different forms exist,’ one incon- 
spicuous and regularly self-fertilising, the other more conspicuous 
Fic. 156.—Rhinanthus erista-galli, 1. 
1.—Anthers, from the front. 
2.—Ditto, with the style, from the side. 
8.—An anther, from the inner side. 
4.—Ovary, with the base of the style, nectary (n), and base of the corolla (co). 
5.—Flower, of the variety minor, after removal of the right half of the calyx, from the side. 
6 —Upper part of ditto, at the beginning of the flowering period, from the front. 
7.—Ditto, at the end of the flowering period. 
8.—Style of the variety minor. 
9.—Style of the variety major. 
(i—3, x 7; 4—9, x 3h) 
and incapable of self-fertilisation. Delpino, who has thoroughly 
described the mechanism of this flower, has only had the larger 
form (major) under examination ; for he calls Vaucher’s fairly 
accurate account (752) of the occurrence of self-fertilisation, 
_ merely a product of the imagination.” 
. R. minor, Ehrh.—In the small-flowered form, the tube, whose 
base contains the honey, is 7 to 8 mm, long, so that the honey is 
ie 1 Linneus distinguished these as varieties (a and B). Later authors have advanced . 
| them to the rank of species, R. major, Ehrh., and R. minor, Ehrh. 
2 No. 178, p. 183, ‘‘ Ora tutto cid non é che un parto della imaginazione.” 
