40 FLASHLIGHTS ON NATURE 



blue or violet, for you will find throughout nature 

 that blue is the true bee colour ; and flowers that 

 depend most for fertilisation on bees or their allies 

 are almost always decked out in blue or purple. 

 If you examine a soldanella closely, too, you will 

 see that all its parts are exactly adapted to the 

 shape and organs of its most frequent visitor, here 

 represented in the act of rifling its honey. Its 

 bell-shaped blossoms just fit the insect in size ; its 

 stamens shed pollen just where his hairy body is 

 adapted to receive it ; its sensitive stigma is so 

 arranged that he rubs the golden grains off on the 

 receptive surface of the next flower he visits. Then 

 the little capsules swell, and the seeds ripen ; and 

 the happy soldanella, becoming a fertile mother of 

 future generations, has fulfilled the main purpose 

 of its stormy existence. 



Sometimes, however, the ice-sheet above is too 

 thick to pierce ; and then the bud, after making 

 manful efforts to melt its way out to the open air, 

 is forced to give up the attempt in despair, and 

 unfold its petals within its icy cavern. In that 

 case, of course, no insect can visit it ; and such 

 cloistered blossoms are therefore obliged to have 

 recourse to the inferior expedient of self-fertilisa- 

 tion. I say inferior, because all higher plants strive 

 as far as possible to produce seedlings which shall 

 be the offspring of a distinct father and mother. 

 The last illustration (No. 7) shows two flowers 

 which have lengthened their stalk in vain to the 

 furthest point for which they possess material, but 

 have failed to melt a way out of the solid ice-sheet. 



