190 The Great World's Farm 



bees have been less particular than usual, and have dusted 

 the pistil-tips with pear-pollen. So, too, an orange-blos- 

 som crossed with pollen from a lemon will bear fruit which 

 is partly orange, partly lemon, with peel partly of the one, 

 partly of the other. 



Among the many plants visited by bees, large or small, 

 are the foxglove, mallow, and campanula, all of which, 

 though they grow pistils and stamens together, ripen them 

 at different times. Any one not knowing this, and examin- 

 ing a campanula-blossom, would be puzzled to know what 

 could have become of the stamens, for when the flower 

 opens they have generally vanished; the pollen is there 

 still, however, having been discharged upon the stalk of 

 the pistil before the bud opened, after which the stamens 

 shriveled away. It is caught and held by the hairs with 

 which the stalk of the pistil is clothed, apparently for the 

 very purpose of holding it until the bees come and carry 

 it off. When the pollen is gone, the tip of the pistil 

 unfolds from three to five spreading branches which no 

 pollen can reach while they remain folded; and then, back 

 come the bees, this time in search of nectar, but bringing 

 with them grains of pollen in abundance from other 

 flowers. 



Some pistils, as has been said, are actually poisoned, 

 and others unaffected by the pollen of their own surround- 

 ing stamens. But there are others which carry their likes 

 and dislikes a point further still, and require pollen not 

 merely from the blossoms of another plant, but from blos- 

 soms whose stamens grow at exactly the right height ; and 

 if it comes from stamens too short or too long they can 

 make little if any use of it. 



There is, for instance, the great purple loosestrife, 



