JUNE 109 



a discharge of pollen on its back, which will take effect 

 on the first flower with a ripe stigma which it visits 

 afterwards. 



In many other plants the device is purely mechanical. 

 Note in the flower-bud of that lovely shrub the kalmia 

 the prominent cusps or bosses that enrich the reverse 

 side of the corolla. They render the flower-bud itself 

 a very beautiful object, like a covered chalice of pink 

 alabaster; but their purpose is more serious than 

 merely for ornament. Corresponding to each cusp on 

 the outside of the corolla there is a little pit on the 

 inside, into which one of the anthers is firmly locked. 

 As the flower opens, the wiry stamens are bent back- 

 wards and outwards, so that each forms a confined 

 spring. In this position they remain, the anthers 

 tightly held in the pits until the pollen is ripe. Then, 

 and not till then, the pits loosen their hold so that the 

 lightest touch may release the anthers; the stamens 

 spring erect, flinging a little pellet of pollen to the 

 distance of a foot or eighteen inches. When bees are 

 busy among the flowers, these pellets may be seen flying 

 in all directions, and some are pretty sure to fall on the 

 ripe stigmata of neighbouring blossoms. It is amusing 

 to release the springs with a pin or grass stem ; but in 

 this country a dry day must be taken for the experi- 

 ment, for kalmia is a native of North America, where the 

 atmosphere is much less humid than in these islands. 



In the Sage family a different mechanism has been 

 evolved, which may most easily be examined in the 

 blue salvia or American sage (Salvia patens), a 

 charming herb commonly used as a summer bedder, 



