in.] THE FERTILISATION OF FLOWERS. 43 



The centre of the disc is occupied by five anthers, 

 which shed their pollen and shrivel up. Their place 

 is then taken by five more anthers which have been 

 hitherto concealed in the flower-tube, but when they 

 have shed their pollen and retired, they are succeeded 

 by the stigmas, which are only now ripe. If an insect 

 visit one of the younger flowers it can hardly fail to 

 brush off some of the pollen, which is almost equally 

 certain to be deposited on the stigmas of an older 

 flower. But more remarkable is the case of the 

 Forget -me- Not, in which the young flowers have 

 the stigma protruding a little above the disc, so that 

 an insect which has dusted itself with the pollen from 

 a neighbouring flower is pretty sure to fertilise it. 

 But should this not happen, the plant fertilises itself; 

 the corolla-tube lengthens, so as to bring the stamens 

 up to a level with the stigma, when pollen is sure to 

 get deposited on the stigma. 



In the Violets and Pansy there is a most curious 

 arrangement by means of which the pollen is 

 showered down on the bee from above. One of the 

 petals is developed back into a 

 hollow spur, in which the honey 

 is secreted. The anthers are so 

 arranged that they form a box 

 into which the pollen is deposited 

 by the anthers. Through the 

 centre of this chamber the pistil 

 passes, the stigma protruding ; it FlG> 50 . 



should also be noted that the 

 pistil is bent in a peculiar manner, and that two of the 

 anthers have long processes which go back into the 



