236 GENERAL BOTANY 



emit a most disagreeable small, and attract carrion- 

 feeding flies. Large red flowers, like HIBISCUS, are 

 in their native country visited by small honey-sucking 

 birds, and there is one plant whose flowers lie exposed 

 on the ground and are probably pollinated by snails, 

 while some of the most curious and wonderful of all 

 adaptations are found in the flowers of Orchids. But 

 we cannot go more fully into the matter till we have 

 studied plants more, and learnt more about them. 



3. These, then, are the functions of the different 

 parts, the ovary produces the seeds, but can do so 

 only if fertilized by pollen, which is formed in the 

 anthers. The corolla because of its bright colour is 

 the conspicuous part of the flower and with the help of 

 the often sweetly-scented honey formed at its base, 

 attracts insects, or birds, which bring pollen from 

 other plants so that the resulting seeds have stronger 

 embryos. And all these delicate parts are, while 

 being formed in the bud, covered and protected by 

 the sepals or calyx, whose place however is often 

 taken by other parts (in the Cotton plant by the 

 bracteoles, in the Sunflower by the involucre), as is 

 sometimes that of the corolla by the stamens in 

 THALICTRUM and CANNA, or by the sepals, in ANE- 

 MONE, etc. 



Since the general shape and colour of a flower may 

 be special adaptations to attract some special class of 

 insect, they are not of much importance as criteria 

 of a plant's relationship. The union or non-union of 

 the petals, the number of the stamens, the superior 

 or inferior position of the ovary, and the number of 

 its cells, are far less likely to be affected, and are 



