THE BEE AND THE LUPINE 55 



To understand this better and appreciate the contrivances 

 used, have the class now examine the flowers closely. If it is the 

 common blue-and-white lupine that is in hand, the parts of the 

 corolla which show without opening the flower are as follows : The 

 upper blue and white part, which is the signal flag to show the bee 

 where the flower is. Below this is a boat-shaped part which is 

 blue. If we gently press this down without touching what is 

 within we find a whitish part tipped with a dark purple point. 

 Now if this be pressed down an orange mass of pollen comes out 

 of the tip, then the stigma protrudes. If we take this covering 

 entirely off we find that in it are included the ten stamens and the 



one stigma. A closer study of 

 this covering shows it to be in 

 two parts lightly adhering at a 

 part of their edges in such a way 

 as to make a cone with a minute 

 hole in the apex covering over 

 stigma and anthers of the 



Fig 29. One side of the covering as ctarnenS 

 shown in Fig. 28. removed, showing the 



st7fn n , g n e s m h e a ve rfn?d .'^dShSJd thS? An examination of the growth 



stamens have ripened and discharged their 



pollen, five other stamens behind these are n f fU~ flnwer in trip hurl <;rinw<s 



growing and crowding the pollen in the C tnG nower 1OWS 



that when the conical covering, 

 which, by the way, is formed 



of two petals, forms, five of the stamens mature in the bud and 

 the pollen comes off, making a mass of it. Then the other five 

 stamens grow and crowd the mass of pollen forward into the cone. 

 In the meantime the stamens and pistil grow into the curve 

 they present. Two other petals grow around these in the boat- 

 shaped form and conceal them and make the platform for the bee to 

 light upon, and the other petal grows up to be the flag signal to 

 attract the attention of the bee. Now the trap is complete. In 

 many other flowers of much the same form the trap is baited with 



