Lilacs and Privets 



At the top it expands into a little cross of four 

 rounded petal lobes. At the mouth of the tube can be 

 seen the tops of two anthers almost closing it. If one 

 slits down the petal tube, one can see that these 

 anthers are set right down upon the tube in the 

 bulging they possess no filaments. At the base of 

 the tube is a minute seed-case, and on it rises a 

 very short column whose forked tip is far beneath the 

 anthers. Abundant honey, which has exuded from the 

 ovary wall, fills the bottom of the petal tube. This 

 and the "exceeding sweet savour," which Gerard noted, 

 make the Lilac flowers very attractive to the v insect 

 world, and bees, butterflies, hover flies, and flies in 

 general visit it largely. Of these the Macroglossa 

 bombyliformis seems specially to visit it in great 

 numbers, and to show a marked preference for it. 

 Some insects come for the nectar, others for the pollen. 

 Those that come for the sake of honey bring about 

 cross-fertilisation. They insert their proboscides dry 

 at the outset and slip them by the anthers. But 

 when they have drunk their fill and wish to withdraw, 

 the now moistened proboscis attaches pollen grains, 

 and the insect flies off carrying them with it to the 

 next flower, where they are automatically rubbed off 

 by the stigma fork. The insects which come merely 

 to devour pollen, bring about self-fertilisation, for in 



rummaging at the anthers some of the pollen is bound 



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