ALLUREMENTS OF ANIMALS FOR THE DISPERSION OF POLLEN. 179 



{Nigella), of the RanunculaceaB, they resemble a covered bowl with a stem, or a 

 hanging lamp (see figs. 250*-^'^'''). In the flowers of the Monkshood (Aconitum), 

 they take the shape sometimes of a Phrygian cap, sometimes of a cowl, and 

 occasionally of a French horn, and are carried by a long, erect stalk traversed by 

 a channel. In the flowers of the Isopyrum as well as in those of Gimicifuga, they 

 resemble shovels or spoons, which carry two puzzling knobbed processes at their 

 free ends. The flowers of the Winter Aconite (Eranthis), and of the Christmas 

 Rose (Helleborus), exhibit nectaries of a trumpet, cup, or tubular form with 

 obliquely-truncated mouth within the large calyx, and those of the Globe-flower 

 (Trollius) conceal numerous spatulate nectaries, which are somewhat bent and 

 thickened in the lower third, where they are provided with a honey-secreting pit 

 (see fig. 221 2, p. 110). In the flowers of the Pasque-flower (Pulsatilla vernalis 

 and vulgaris), between the large, flat floral-leaves, and the anther-bearing stamens, 

 small club-shaped structures are interpolated in two or three spiral series. These 

 secrete abundant honey which moistens the base of the neighbouring stamens. All 

 these honey-leaves may be regarded either as modifications of petals or of stamens. 

 Those of Epimedium, Love-in-a-mist, Monkshood, and Isopyrum, remind one more 

 of the former, those of the Globe-flower and Pasque-flower of the latter. The 

 opinion was stated in vol. i. p. 646, that all perianth-leaves might be metamorphosed 

 stamens, consequently it is idle to inquire whether the honey-leaves are to be 

 regarded as petals or as stamens. 



From the point of view of the visits of animals these questions as well as others 

 of speculative morphology are unimportant. But, on the other hand, it is of 

 importance to group together into two divisions those nectaries which we have 

 hitherto but cursorily noticed from a morphological aspect. One of these divisions 

 will comprise the nectaries whose sweet fluid is exposed to the daylight, the other 

 those in which the honey is concealed in hidden nooks at the base of the flower. 



The exposed honey is accessible to all flower-visiting animals, but can be 

 appropriated with good results only by some of them. The varnish-like coating 

 of honey, for example, which is spread over the cushion of tissue on the ovary of 

 the Spindle-tree, Ivy and Cornel, Saxifrages and Umbelliferous plants cannot be 

 sucked up by butterflies and humble-bees with long probosces. But it is just this 

 honey which is the centre of attraction for beetles, flies, gnats, and other insects 

 with short probosces. On the flowers of the plants named there are actually 

 swarms of beetles of the genera Anthrenus, Dasytes, Meligeihes, Telephorus and 

 Trichius, as well as innumerable flies and gnats which lick up the thin layer of 

 honey with their tongues or their flatly-extended probosces. And the honey which 

 is displayed in the form of large drops in the depths of the lip of the flowers of the 

 Helleborine (Epipactis), and in the corolla of the Figwort (Scrophularia) is sought 

 for only by insects with short probosces, particularly by wasps, while it is avoided 

 by humble-bees and butterflies. 



With the honey hidden in concealed pits, tubes, and channels, exactly the 

 opposite occurs. This is inaccessible to most of the insects with short probosces 



