Goronilla and Colutea 



than in the pea, for instance. In the bud this wraps 

 round the rest of the petals, and at an early stage of its 

 development it is red ; hence the buds all appear to 

 be bright red. Mingling with the yellow fully-opened 

 flowers they add a pretty note of colour to the shrub. 

 As the flower opens, and the standard ages, it loses 

 its red hue, and is yellow like the rest of the petals. 

 The two side petals the wings are closely folded to the 

 pointed keel (which is composed of the remaining two 

 petals), and arch, saddle-wise, over it. Within the keel 

 are the ten stamens, the lower halves of nine being joined 

 to form a deep narrow trough, while one remains out of 

 the brotherhood, i.e. in botanical parlance they are " dia- 

 delphous." The filaments in their upper part, just below 

 the anthers, are thickened into clubs. Inside this trough 

 lies the long, thin, immature pod with a projecting horn 

 at top among the ten distinct heads of the stamens. 

 Therefore, we have the keel enwrapping the whole of the 

 stamens, and the filaments of the stamens enwrapping 

 the seed-pod. 



The mechanism of the flower is this. A bee hovers 

 and then straddles on the saddle of the wings, and its 

 weight presses on the keel beneath. Since the stamen 

 heads shed moist pollen into the hollow peak of the keel 

 as the bud opens, this action forces the stamen filaments 

 upwards, their club ends pressing on the shed pollen, and 

 out through the minute hole at the tip of the keel it 



M 181 



