POLLEN, OR FLOWER-DUST 89 



its anther ; and the second, that of an African 

 lily, with dark grey pollen. The stamens of the 

 lily tribe are conspicuous by iheir movable or 

 "versatile" anthers, and are familiar in the large 

 white and tiger lilies, a stamen from the former 

 being shown as the third example in the illustra- 

 tion. The fourth represents the stamen of the 

 garden nasturtium ; the fifth, that of a snapdragon, 

 with bright yellow pollen ; the sixth, a begonia, 

 with paler yellow pollen ; and the seventh, an un- 

 ripe stamen of the foxglove, with its pretty divided 

 yellow anther spotted with red. After ripening 

 this eventually bursts and scatters myriads of 

 silvery pollen-grains. Thus it will be seen that 

 the pollen-grains vary greatly in colour in 

 different flowers, although yellow is strongly 

 dominant. 



The stamens and anthers in highly developed 

 types of flowers are usually so arranged as to 

 ensure fertilisation by means of the insects which 

 visit them ; but I have space for only one ex- 

 ample to illustrate this. Fig. 56 shows the 

 inside of a blossom of the foxglove, which has 

 been cut open, showing its stamens and stigma 

 in situ. The corolla-tube of the foxglove is 

 neatly adapted to the bulk of the large humble 

 bee, and as it enters and backs out again, with 

 this arrangement of ripe anthers over its back, it 



