III.] 



CAR YOPHYLLA CE^E. 



terminates in a very viscid disk. When the proboscis 

 of an insect is forced down the tube in search of 

 honey, it comes in contact with this viscid disk, and 

 being thus rendered adhesive, when it is withdrawn 

 carries some of the pollen with it, and thus conveys 

 it to the next flower, where it is stripped off the 

 retreating proboscis by the edge of the viscid disk, 



FlG. 60. Flower of Polygala vulgaris. 



FIG. &. Section of ditt*. 



and is thus accumulated in the stigmatic hollow. 

 Polygala vulgaris is sometimes blue and sometimes 

 pink ; why is this? It is, moreover, a variable species 

 in other respects, as for instance in the size and pro- 

 portions of the different leaves. The use of the 

 curious finger- formed processes has not, I think, been 

 satisfactorily explained. 



CARYOPHYLLACE^:. 



This is a large family and contains fourteen British 

 genera ; Dianthus (the wild Pink), Saponaria, Silene, 

 Lychnis (Fig. 50), Sagina, Cherleria, Arenaria, Maen- 



