INTERDEPENDENCE OF ORGANISMS 



lip (fig. 2 3 a). Figure 236 represents the stamens and pistil 



inside view with the corolla cut 

 away. The stamens are re- 

 duced to two pairs and a hairy 

 rudiment of the fifth. The ar- 

 row in the figure indicates the- 

 position of the bumblebee when 

 it is inside feeding, its body be- 

 tween the paired stamens, its 

 long proboscis reaching down- 

 ward to the nectaries in the bot- 

 tom. Only the bee in action, 

 could explain the purpose of 

 some of the peculiarities of these- 

 stamens. They are laterally 

 flattened so that they will easily 

 bend aside. Their planes are 

 set aslant at an angle opening 

 forward, so that the bee may 

 easily crowd between them. The 

 conspicuous bend forward in 



their middle portion, being convex toward the entrance, is; 

 set in opposition to the pushing of the bee so that they may 

 not be crowded backward out of place. Now turning the 

 stamens so as to see them from the front, as in fig. 23^, we 

 observe that the space between them is much narrower 

 than the bee's body. Separating them a little with our 

 forceps, as at fig. 23 d we observe that the anthers, held 

 together by matted hairs above, rotate upon their stalks, 

 separate below, exposing their pollen cavities, out of which 

 a shower of dry pollen falls. Thus it is the bee gets dusted 

 on the back. One may demonstrate this by thrusting a 

 pencil of the thickness of the bees body into the flower and 

 getting a deposit of pollen upon the end of it. Smaller 



FIG. 23. Diagrams illustrating 

 the structure and mechanism 

 of the turtle heads flower, a, 

 anthers; p, pistil; r, a rudi- 

 mentary fifth stamen. Other 

 things explained in the text. 



