148 COLIN CLOUT'S CALENDAR. 



Perhaps you hav never observed before that the single 

 flower-stalks are each slightly humpbacked : there is a 

 sort of knob on the stalk about a quarter of an inch 

 above the junction with the stem ; and from that knob 

 upward the stalk grows twice as thick as below. Again, 

 look at the flower full in front, and you will observe, 

 what perhaps has hitherto escaped your notice, that all 

 five petals are not equal and similar, but that the blossom 

 is bilateral instead of radially symmetrical ; it has two 

 upper petals distinctly different in shape from the three 

 lower ones. The upper pair are narrower, and stand on 

 rather long claws ; the lower trio are broader, and have 

 no claw. Now, pull off the two upper petals, and you 

 will see that behind them there lies a deep pouch or 

 tube, running along the top of the flower-stalk as far as 

 the knob. Cut the stalk across, and you will find it 

 hollow on the top ; cut it down lengthwise, and, if you 

 follow up the pouch throughout its whole length, you 

 will learn that it leads at last to a drop of honey, secreted 

 in the furthest recesses of the knob. To put it shortly, 

 what seems the flower- stalk is really a stalk and a nectar- 

 bearing spur run into one. How this has happened, and 

 why it has happened, one can easily understand by the 

 analogy of this other old-fashioned garden flower, the 

 common nasturtium or Indian cress. 



In the nasturtium, you see at once that the upper 

 lobe of the calyx is prolonged behind into a deep and 

 pointed spur ; and you have probably bitten off one of 

 these spurs at some time or other and have found that it 

 contained a large supply of rather pungent but very 

 luscious honey. At least, it seems pungent to our 

 clumsy taste, because we have to cut or bruise the tissues 

 of the plant in order to get at it. Now, if you bend 

 back the spur of the nasturtium so as to make it touch 



