NEWS OF SPRING 



the anthers remain strict captives. In this silky tabernacle, 

 therefore, the organs of the two sexes are very close together 

 and even in immediate contact; nevertheless, thanks to an 

 arrangement quite different from that of the Sage, self-fertili- 

 zation is utterly impossible. The anthers, in fact, form two 

 sacks filled with powder; each of the sacks has only one open- 

 ing and they are juxtaposed in such a way that the openings 

 coincide and mutually close each other. They are kept forc- 

 ibly inside the hood, on their curved, springy stalks, by a sort 

 of teeth. The bee or humble-bee that enters the flower to sip 

 its nectar necessarily pushes these teeth aside; and the sacks 

 are no sooner set free than they fly up, are flung outside the 

 hood and alight upon the back of the insect. 



But the genius and foresight of the flower go farther than 

 this. As Hermann Miiller, who was the first to make a com- 

 plete study of the wonderful mechanism of the Lousewort, 

 observes (I am quoting from a summary) : 



"If the stamens struck the insect while preserving their 

 relative positions, not a grain of pollen would leave them, be- 

 cause their orifices reciprocally close each other. But a con- 

 trivance which is as simple as it is ingenious overcomes the 



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