SPRING FLOWERS 147 



the ovary, if it is carefully opened, a single ovule, attached to the 

 base of the little cavity, will be found. 



The description above refers to a fully mature floret. In 

 order to understand the mode of pollination it is necessary to 

 follow the changes in the flower from its opening until it is fully 

 grown. If an inflorescence be selected in which some of the 

 florets in the centre are still unopened, the florets immediately 

 outside these will be a little older and have just opened, while the 

 outermost florets will be the oldest. In the florets which have 

 newly opened the yellow anther tube will be visible, but no trace 

 of the style or stigma. The stamens have shed their pollen into 

 the hollow cylinder formed by the anthers. As the style, ending 

 in the stigma, the two lobes of which have not yet separated, 

 grows in length it pushes its way up this cylinder and sweeps out 

 the pollen ; this accumulates as a little yellow mass at the summit 

 of the tube. When the stigma has reached the top of the anther 

 tube the pollen is all swept out, and as the growth of the style 

 continues the two lobes of the stigma separate and expose the 

 receptive inner surface, which has till now been safe from contact 

 with the pollen. 



Flowers in the first or pollen-shedding stage, and the second 

 or pollen-receiving stage, occur in the same inflorescence. The 

 whole expanse of one to two hundred florets contained in the 

 inflorescence makes a conspicuous and brightly coloured object 

 in the sunshine. It is visited by many insects, by small flies 

 which come to eat the pollen, and by longer tongued insects in 

 search of the nectar secreted at the bottom of the corolla tube. 

 The insects coming in contact with florets in the first stage will 

 be dusted with pollen, and in passing from flower to flower may 

 deposit this on the open stigmas of older flowers in the same 

 or in another inflorescence. 



Should the florets not be cross-pollinated in this way the lobes 

 of the stigma, as they continue to curve back, will bring the re- 

 ceptive surface in contact with some of the pollen still adhering 

 to the hairy outer surface of the style, and so the floret will in 

 any case be self -pollinated. 



There are other complications in the reproduction of the 

 Dandelion into which we cannot enter here. A careful study of 



