52 OUR ROCK-GARDEN 



five stamen anthers form a coronet at the mouth of 

 the tube. These are known respectively as pin- 

 centre and rose-centre flowers. The transfer of the 

 pollen from the anthers to the pistil-head is naturally 

 most readily performed in the rose-centred flowers, 

 the fertilisation in the other form, the pin-centre, 

 being almost wholly dependent on the transfer of 

 the pollen from some other primrose flower by the 

 unconcious agency of bees or other insect visitors 

 to the blossoms. 

 Cowper tells of 



" Lanes in which the primrose ere her time 

 Peeps through the moss that clothes the hawthorn root/' 



and in sheltered hedgerows we may find primroses 

 in bloom sometimes even at Christmas. The poets 

 often adopt a somewhat patronising and pitying tone 

 in their dealings with the primrose ; l but in truth it 

 needs no such commiseration, as it can well hold its 

 own in the struggle for existence, and accepts with 

 equal fortitude driving sleet, drenching rain, roaring 

 gale, or whatever else disagreeably climatic may 

 befall it. Its blossoms are at least as permanent as 



1 "The primrose pale." SCOTT. 

 u Pale primrose.'' SHAKESPEARE. 

 "Soft silken primrose, fading timelessly." MILTON. 

 " The rathe primrose that forsaken dies." MILTON. 

 u O that so faire a flower so soone should fade." 

 SPENSER. 



