PART III. | THE MECHANISMS OF FLOWERS, 549 
anthers (a, 3). Occasionally reversion to the hermaphrodite 
condition takes place, and then in the hermaphrodite flowers the 
pistil may sometimes be seen in various degrees of abortion.1 
The pendulous bell-shaped flowers have a pleasant scent; in spite 
of their inconspicuous colour they are easily visible at a distance, 
the male flowers, which are 6 mm. long, being much more so than 
the females (8 mm.). This instance confirms Sprengel’s oft- 
repeated rule that the male flowers of diclinic plants are more 
conspicuous than the female, whence insects are likely to visit the 
two kinds of flowers in the proper sequence. Honey is secreted 
and lodged in the base of the corolla. 
Visitors : Hymenoptera—A pide: (1) Apis mellifica, L. $, s. and c.p., very 
ab. ; (2) Osmia rufa, L. 9, s.; (3) Megachile centuncularis, L. 9, s. ; (4) 
Prosopis annularis, K. (Sm.) 9, s.; (5) Halictus sexnotatus, K. 9, c¢.p., here 
and there looking for pollen in the female flowers and effecting fertilisation 
occasionally, 
389. CONVALLARIA MAJALIS, L.—When the flower opens, and 
before the anthers ripen, the stigma is already covered with long 
Fic. 183.—Convallaria majalis, L. 
1.—Flower, from below. 
2.—Ditto, after removing half the corolla, with three of the stamens. 
st, filaments; a, anthers ; fr, ovary; n, stigma. 
papiile ; yet if a ripe anther be passed over its surface scarcely 
any pollen adheres. Afterwards, when the anthers have dehisced, 
the stigma becomes covered with a sticky fluid, to which pollen 
adheres readily. I have not found honey in the flowers, though 
I have frequently seen hive-bees visiting them. The bees collected 
pollen hanging to the pendulous flowers and inserting their heads 
and forelegs. They thus brought their heads in contact with 
the stigma before the anthers, and performed cross-fertilisation 
regularly. Then as the bee swept the pollen from the anthers 
with the tarsal brushes of its forelegs, it dusted its head anew 
1 Breitenbach, Bot. Zeitung, Nov. 11, 1878. 
