Cuckoo-Pint, 259 



imprisoned beneath. Even if a little of it happens to 

 catch upon the pistils here and there, that does not 

 matter now, for all the ovaries are already duly impreg- 

 nated, and the sensitive surfaces have shrivelled utterly 

 away ; so most of the pollen falls on to the floor of 

 the hood, where the small flies are waiting impatiently 

 and hungrily for the Danae flood. It covers them 

 all over from head to foot with the golden grains, 

 and clogs their legs and wings and bodies in every 

 portion. A fine time the flies have of it then. They 

 get actually drunk with pollen after their fast ; and, 

 if you cut open one of the hoods in this stage of 

 development, you will find the little creatures posi- 

 tively reeling about in their intoxication, and so full- 

 fed with rich grains that they can hardly use their 

 legs or wings to crawl or fly. A little fresh air seems 

 to revive them slightly, as is often the case with other 

 gentlemen under similar circumstances ; and then 

 they can feebly fly away after a few minutes. 



But in the natural state of things, when no wan- 

 dering botanist comes with his penknife to make what 

 he calls in his lively language a ' longitudinal section 

 of Arum maculatum,' the flies remain at the bottom 

 of their deep well till they have eaten almost all the 

 pollen, and got most helplessly and stupidly drunk in 

 the process. A great waste of pollen this, for the 



