Chapter XV. 



LOPSIDED FLOWERS AND SOME OTHERS. 



A stranger who knows something of flowers is generally 

 struck with the number of shrubs and herbs in our bush, 

 whose flowers are so irregular that they may be called lop- 

 sided. Perhaps the most interesting of these is the herb 

 we call Trigger-plant, also Jack-in-the-box. It is a con- 

 spicuous plant, with numerous pretty pink flowers arranged 

 on an upright stem. The flowers are very peculiar ; the 

 stamens and pistil are united in a bent column ; the anthers 

 ripen first; the column is bent back like a trigger: now, 

 if a fly settles at the base of the column, looking for honey, 

 the trigger suddenly springs forward, so as to bring the 

 anthers on to the fly's back. The insect in endeavouring 

 to escape gets its back covered with pollen. The fly next 

 visits an older flower, and here the anthers are shrivelled 

 up, and between them the ripe stigma protrudes. The 

 same spring occurs again, but now the stigma is rubbed 

 on the insect's back which is already covered with pollen, 

 and thus cross-fertilisation 1s effected. 



Parrot's-food and its allies are very one-sided, and except 

 in some small white-flowered species, and two which are 

 blue, are always yellow. The flowers have no trigger, 

 but crossing is effected in a somewhat similar manner; the 

 anthers mature before the flower opens; the style is in 

 the form of a brush that is a stalk and the brush 

 at the top. This brush is two-lipped, and each lip 

 is furnished with bristles- The stigma, shaped like a 

 cushion, pushes its way out between the lips which bend 

 back, and the bristles prevent the pollen of the same 

 flower from fertilising it. We have many Lobelias which 

 are similarly constructed, except they have not a brush- 

 termination to the style. Eyebright is a pretty perennial, 

 with irregular flowers of varied colours, white, yellow, or 

 blue, which should repay cultivation in our gardens. 

 Veronica is closely allied to Eyebright. Thev are also 

 called Speedwell. The nearly regular flowers are blue, 

 with a four-lobed corolla, combined in a short tube, and 

 bearing only two stamens. The last of the lop-sides we 

 will note is that pretty shrub commonly called Tasmanian 

 Christmas Bush, likewise Native Lilac or Mint-tree. It 



