THE WELCOME OF THE FLOWERS 



40) 



FIG. 508. Catasetum tridentatum. 



A section of the flower: (ao) anther case; (/>) pollen masses; (rf) viscid 



disc; (&) band connecting pollen-masses with disc; (an) one of the 



antennae ; (r) rostellum. 



nectary varies in different 

 plants, and bears, as a rule, 

 the most evident relation 

 to the pollinating of the 

 flower. In the Japan Lily 

 (Lilium speciosum) the 

 narrow grooves at the bases 

 of the perianth form the 

 nectary ; and this is also 

 the case in the Martagon 

 Lily (L. martagori), though 

 here the nectary is more 

 complicated in structure. 

 The grooves (which are 

 deeper than the grooves 

 in the Japan Lily) are 

 bordered by stiff hairs 

 which rise up and arch 

 over to form a tube, 

 through which the nectar must be sucked, so that only long-tongued insects 

 can get at it. In the Garden Nasturtium (Tropceolum majus) the sepaline 

 spur of the calyx is the nectary ; while in the Larkspur (Delphinium, 

 fig. 480) and some closely allied species, the hollow petaline spur secretes 

 the nectar. The two upper petals of Delphinium datum, for example, 

 lie close together so as to form a hollow cone, at the end of which is 

 the nectar ; whilst the spur, beside serving as a guide to the sucking- 

 tubes of bees (the flower's 

 chief pollinators) prohibits 

 by its length the access of 

 insects with shorter 

 tongues. 



In the Crowfoot family 

 (Ranunculus) the nectar is 

 protected by small scales at 

 the base of the petals one 

 scale to each petal as may 

 be seen in the Buttercup 

 (R. acrisj fig. 479, and R. 

 bulbosus) ; while in the 

 Common Barberry (Berberis 

 mdyaris, figs. 479 and 602) 

 of which more hereafter 

 each of the petaline iiec- FlG 50 ^_ Cata8etum tridentatum . 



taries IS double. They differ The flower in the act of expelling the pollinium. 



