The Gorse 



/ 

 stamens, and the floury pollen is thrown up in a little 



cloud with a jerk, and the visitor's abdomen gets 

 covered by it. The stigma touches the abdomen first, 

 however, and rubs off any pollen that may have been 

 brought from a previous flower. Thus there is inter- 

 change of pollen from flower to flower and cross-fertili- 

 sation. If a flower be held over a piece of white paper 

 and an explosion brought about artificially by depressing 

 the keel with a pencil, one can see the whole process 

 for oneself. Further development follows on fertilisa- 

 tion. The sepals, petals and stamens wither and fall, 

 the pod enlarges and ultimately blackens. When quite 

 ripe it suddenly splits with a "crack," and in the 

 release and coiling of the pod-halves the row of tiny 

 black seeds within are shot out and dispersed. 



In the Double Gorse the stamens are in all stages 

 of transition into petals, hence the tufted appearance 

 of the centre of the flower. Some are practically 

 transformed, others are barely out of the staminal 

 form and even hint at anthers. The pod in its white 

 hairy coat is intact, but even its long column has a 

 tendency to flatten, petal-like, in sympathy. Of course 

 there is no future for a flower of this kind. It merely 

 pleases the eye of man, and since it cannot fulfil its 

 proper function of producing fertile seed, it has no 

 place in the scheme of Nature. 



The foliage remains true to type 



57 



