122 THE STORY OF THE PLANTS. 



point all downwards, occupy a place in the com- 

 pound flower-head just opposite the conspicuous 

 narrowed part of the spathe which surrounds and 

 encloses them. At this narrow point they form a 

 sort of lobster-pot. It is easy enough for an in- 

 sect to creep down past them, but very difficult 

 or impossible for him to creep up in the opposite 

 direction, as all the hairs point sharply downwards. 

 Now, when the spathe unfolds, large numbers of 

 a very small midge of a particular species are at- 

 tracted into it by the purple club which rises 

 like a barber's pole in the middle. If you cut a 

 cuckoo-pint open during its flowering period you 

 will always find a whole mob of these wee flies, 

 crawling about in it vaguely, and covered from 

 head to foot with pollen. They have come from 

 another cuckoo-pint which they previously visited, 

 and they have brought the pollen with them on 

 their wings and bodies. But when they first 

 reach the head, they find no pollen there ; the 

 female flowers at the bottom ripen first, and the 

 midges, creeping over the sensitive surface of 

 these, fertilise them with pollen from the last 

 plant they entered. Finding nothing to eat, if 

 they could they would crawl out again ; but they 

 can't, for the lobster-pot hairs prevent them. So 

 they stop on perforce, having unwittingly fertilised 

 the female flowers, but received themselves as yet 

 no reward for their trouble. By and by, how- 

 ever, after all the female flowers have been duly 

 fertilised, the males above begin to ripen. When 

 the stamens reach maturity, they shower down a 

 whole flood of golden pollen on the expectant 

 midges. Then the midges positively roll and 

 revel in the flood, eating all they can, but at the 

 same time covering themselves all over with a 



