THE WELCOMES OF THE FLOWERS 



137 



the flowers being shown from above, showing the 

 two spreading stamens and the decidedly excep- 

 tional unsymmetrical position of the long style 

 extending to the side. A small 

 nectar-seeking bumblebee had 

 approached, and in alighting 

 upon the fringed platform 

 grasped the filaments for sup- 

 port, and thus clapped the pollen 

 against his sides. Rea- 

 soning from analogy, it 

 would of course be abso- 

 lutely clear that this pol- 

 len has thus been depos- 

 ited where it will come in 

 contact with the stigma 

 of another flower. So, 

 of course, it proved. In 

 the bee's continual visits 

 to the several flowers he 

 came at length to the younger 

 blooms, where the forked sti; 

 mas were turned directly to the 

 front, while the immature sta- 

 mens were still curled up in the flower tubes. Even 

 the unopened buds showed a number of species 

 where the early matured stigma actually protruded 



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