The Canadian Horticulturist. 



one or two, as seen in Fig. 549, begin to rise from their 



first position beneath the flower until they stand just 



over the stigma, so that a bee entering could not fail to 



get dusted in the breast with pollen (now beginning to 



be shed), as the tongue is stretched out, and the head 



pushed forward to reach the sweet secretion in the 



spur. 



The anthers, continuing to reach maturity, follow their 



leaders, one by one, and during the time that their pollen 



is being liberated by gaping of the pollen pouches, they 



stand in front of or close to the stigma. This process 



occupies from three to seven days, after which the anthers 



begin to drop off, and the filaments to shrivel and droop. 



But the style meanwhile has grown longer, . nd the 

 pistil, now adhesive and receptive, assumes the posi- 

 tion in relation to the rest of the blossom, which the 

 anthers before occupied (see Fig. 551). A bee 

 flitting from flower to flower, loading her legs with 

 pollen and her honey sac with nectar, passes, with 

 a well powdered breast, from the younger condition 

 (Fig. 549) to the older (Fig. 550), and of necessity 

 presses the pollen grains she carries on to the stigma, 



and cross fertilization is accomplished, the only possible fertilization since the 



two genders do not co-exist, the blossom during the latter period being only 



female. 



It is well deserving of notice that the three lower petals (one of which has 



been removed in the figure) have their edges cut into a number of narrow slits 



which are turned so as to stand nearly upright. These refuse contact with 



water, and perfectly protect the nectar from dilution by 



rain, as may be easily seen by sprinkling water heavily 



upon one of the flowers ; they also compel the visiting 



insect to keep the thorax sufficiently up to rub off its load 



pollen upon the stigma. 



Looking at the blossom now in the front, we see the lines 



on the several petals according to a beautiful and genera 



law in the floral world, point to the cavity in which the 



nectar lies, so that these beautiful lines are guides to the 



insect visitor. 



The order of development noticed in the blossom just 



passed is sometimes, though far less commonly, reversed, as 



in figwort (Figs. 550, 551 and 553), which is a great honey plant. The flower is 



both male and female, but as before, the two genders are never actually co-existent. 



In this case the stigma is first mature. When the corolla opens, the stigma 



