566 THE FERTILISATION OF FLOWERS. [PART III. 
Although the possibility of self-fertilisation being effected by 
the insect-visitors is by no means excluded, cross-fertilisation is 
very much more probable, for when the insect alights in the 
middle of the flower cross-fertilisation is inevitable, and even if it 
alights on a petal cross-fertilisation is more likely to occur than 
self-fertilisation owing to the relative position of the anthers and 
the drops of honey. 
Fic, 186,—1lisma Plantago, lL. 
1.—Flower, seen from above. 
2.—Ditto, in side view, after removal of the petals, 
a, honey-drops; }, stigma, 
The six anthers are directed obliquely upwards and outwards, 
and dehisce extrorsely. They stand at a considerable distance 
from the stigmas, which project in the middle of the flower and 
ripen simultaneously with them, Honey is secreted in twelve 
drops by the inner surface of a fleshy ring formed by the coherent 
bases of the filaments; one drop is placed opposite to each — 
filament, and one in the interspace between each pair (a, 1, 2, 
