6o THE ROLL OF THE SEASONS 



and the small pollen has no chance of penetrating 

 the long style. Pin-eyed stigma must have thrum- 

 eyed pollen, whether the reverse proposition holds or 

 not. Moreover, if Mercury, whether his name be 

 Thrips or Bombus or Selenia, brings the wrong kind 

 of pollen, the flower will wait an hour or two for the 

 proper kind. And, whatever may be the primrose's 

 particular secret, it is certain that if it were not for 

 the hawker and the suburban housewife, there would 

 be plenty of wild primroses within the twenty-mile 

 radius. 



