PERFECT FLOWERS 



65 



COLLINSONIA 



Horse-balm; Richweed 

 Collinsonia canadensis 



The horse-balm is 

 an inconspicuous yet 

 singularly interest- 

 ing flower, whose 

 mode of securing 

 cross-fertilisation for a long time mystified so keen 

 an observer as Mr. Gibson. He seems to be the 

 first to solve the "myster}'," as follows: 



"What I observed is pictured severally in the 

 figure, the flower being shown from above, show- 

 ing the two spreading stamens and the decidedly 

 exceptional unsymmetrical j)osition of the long- 

 style extending to the side. A small nectar-seek- 

 ing bumble-bee has approached and in alighting 

 upon the fringed platform grasped the filaments 

 for support and thus clapped the pollen against 

 his sides. Reasoning from analogy, it would, of 

 course, be absolutely clear that this pollen has thus 

 been deposited where it will come in contact with 

 the stigma of another flower. So, of course, it 

 proved. In the bee's continual visits to the several 

 flowers he came, at length, to the younger blooms, 

 where the forked stigmas were turned directly to- 

 ward the front, while the immature stamens were 

 still curled up in the flower-tubes. Even the un- 



