JULY FLOWERS. 117 



Thus, by the sacrifice of a little su^^ar at the base of each 

 flower-stalk, the vetch secures its precious blossoms from 

 robbery and consequent barrenness. Curiously enoui:^h. 

 there are two nascent varieties of this common vetch, not 

 yet fully differentiated into species — one of them hairy 

 while the other is smooth ; and in almost every case the 

 hairiest specimens, being already sufficiently protected 

 by their forest of tiny bristles, secrete little or no honey. 

 Probably they are now in course of acquiring the habit 

 of doing without it. 



The immense variety of adaptation to external cir- 

 cumstances in the same family, indeed, is n^ a here more 

 conspicuously seen than in our English peaflowers. 

 Fundamentally, they are all so like one another that 

 even the most unlearned eye at once admits their re- 

 lationship ; for who cannot recognise the close similarity 

 between peas and beans, gorse and broom, vetch and 

 clover } Yet almost all of them, while retaining at 

 bottom the fundamental ancestral traits, have hit out 

 the most diverse plans for accommodating themselves 

 to their own particular circumstances. For example, 

 there are four July pea-blossoms now in flower which 

 have four distinct and separate types or methods for 

 ensuring insect fertilisation. In this bright yellow lotus, 

 that covers all the bank with its clustered masses of gold, 

 the pressure of the bee pumps out the pollen through a 

 small aperture at the top against his breast. In the 

 broom and gorse, his weight makes the whole flower 

 burst open elastically, and dusts him from head to foot 

 with the fertilising grains. In the clovers, the stamens 

 are pushed bodily against the insect's bosom so as to 

 shed their store upon his legs. Last of all, in the peas 



