i|8 Flowers and their Pedigrees. 



better to promote proper fertilisation ; and at the 

 same time have acquired a blue pigment, to allure the 

 eyes of azure-loving bees. Others have become 

 dappled with spots to act as honey-guides, or have 

 produced brilliant variegated blossoms to attract the 

 attention of great tropical insects. . Our British lilies 

 alone comprise such various examples as the lily-of- 

 the-valley, a tubular white scented species, adapted 

 for fertilisation by moths ; the very similar Solomon's 

 seal ; the butcher's broom ; the wild tulip ; the star-of- 

 Bethlehem ; the various squills ; the asparagus ; the' 

 grape hyacinth ; and the meadow saffron. Some of 

 them (for example, asparagus and butcher's broom) 

 have also developed berries in place of dry capsules ; 

 and these berries, being eaten by birds which digest 

 the pulp, but not the actual seeds, aid in the disper- 

 sion of the seedlings, and so enable the plant to 

 reduce the total number of seeds to three only, or 

 one in each ovary. Among familiar exotics of the 

 same family may be mentioned the hyacinth, tube- 

 rose, tulip, asphodel, yucca, and most of the so-called 

 lilies. In short, no tribe supplies us with a greater 

 number of handsome garden flowers, for the most 

 part highly adapted to a very advanced type of insect 

 fertilisation. 



Properly to understand the development of our 



