22 MYSTERIES OF THE FLOWERS 



parted corolla, enclosing six stamens and a pistil. 

 Now, let us examine a spike of the sweet flag 

 {Acorns calamus) with a powerful glass, and we 

 shall discover a myriad of minute lilies packed 

 close together. Each floret has the complete struc- 

 ture of a lily, though suff*ering from the close prox- 

 imity of its neighbours. The petals have been re- 

 duced to mere scales, each one protecting a stamen. 

 The sketch represents a floret highly magnified. 

 The reason for this crowding together of the little 

 lily flowers into a close spadix is easy to discover. 

 The plants grow near the water and have to de- 

 pend upon the minute gnats, beetles and other tiny 

 insects which swarm about the pools, and which 

 are indifferent to an appeal to their colour sense. 

 And flowers small enough to receive such midgets 

 must get closely together, and send forth their lure 

 in union — they must do team work if they are to 

 succeed at all; hence the crowded spadix, with its 

 multitude of florets, over which the visitors may 

 wander at will. 



Now examine the spadix of a water arum (CaJla 

 palustris) and you will discover that the florets have 

 lost their petals, and not all of them are perfect 

 flowers. The lower ones are both staminate and 

 pistillate, but the upper ones often are staminate 

 only. 



