NEWS OF SPRING 



drawbridge. Right at the top of each stalk is a great sack, 

 the anther, overflowing with pollen ; at the bottom, two smaller 

 sacks serve as a counterpoise. When the bee enters the flower, 

 in order to reach the nectar she has to push the small sacks 

 with her head. The two stalks, which turn on an axis, at once 

 topple over and the upper anthers come down and touch the 

 sides of the insect, whom they cover with fertilizing dust. No 

 sooner has the bee departed than the pivot-springs fly back 

 and replace the mechanism in its first position; and all is 

 ready to repeat the work at the next visit. 



However, this is only the first half of the play: the sequel 

 is enacted in another scene. In a neighbouring flower, whose 

 stamens have just withered, enters upon the stage the pistil 

 that awaits the pollen. It issues slowly from the hood, length- 

 ens out, stoops, curves down, becomes forked so as, in its turn, 

 to bar the entrance to the tent. As the bee goes to the nectar, 

 her head passes freely under the hanging fork, which, how- 

 ever, grazes her back and sides exactly at the spots touched 

 by the stamens. The two-cleft stigma greedily absorbs the 

 silvery dust; and impregnation is accomplished. It is easy, 

 for that matter, by introducing a straw or the end of a match, 

 to set the apparatus going and to take stock of the striking 



[56] 



