8 FLOWERS OF THE FIELDS AND MEADOWS 



September, and is a deciduous, herbaceous, perennial plant, having 



no stolons. , 



As soon as the flower is open pollen is discharged by the anthers, 

 commencing from the outside. The stigmas are at this stage not yet 

 mature; the anthers open along their edges, and on ripening turn 

 outwards. Bees dust themselves with pollen, carry it off, and deposit 



it elsewhere on other plants. 

 The stigmas are mature 

 before the inner stamens 

 have shed all their pollen, 

 and self-pollination often 

 takes place by means of 

 small insects crawling over 

 the flowers. 



The inner stamens often 

 touch the stigmas. Larger 

 insects bring about cross- 

 pollination if they go from 

 a young to an older flower. 

 The petals secrete the 

 honey. The female flower 

 may occasionally be on a 

 different plant, though as 

 a rule the flowers are com- 

 plete. Diptera (Empidse, 

 Syrphidae, Muscidse), Cole- 

 optera (Nitidulidse, Derme- 

 stidse, Buprestidae, Mordel- 

 lidse, CEdemeridse, Ciste- 



lidae, Cerambycidae, Chrysomelidse), Hymenoptera (Tenthredinidse, 

 Sphegidae, Vespidse, Apidae), Lepidoptera Small Heath (Satyrus 

 (Ccenonympha) Pamphilus), Small Copper (Chrysophanus (Polyom- 

 matus] Phlccas], Burnet Companion (Euclidia glyphica) visit it. 



The fruit is dispersed by its own mechanism. The achenes or 

 fruits are close together and are hooked, and dispersed by the normal 

 splitting and scattering of the fruit. It is also wind -dispersed, and 

 dispersed by animals from the effect of the wind upon the long flower- 

 stalks, and by the agency of passing animals. The plants being bitter 

 to the taste are therefore left standing. 



It is largely a sand plant, subsisting usually on a sand soil derived 

 from sandy formations in which there is a sandy loam. 



Photo. B. Hanley 



UPRIGHT MEADOW CROWFOOT (Ranunculus acris, L.) 



