ii8 COLIN CLOUT'S CALENDAR. 



and vetches the pollen is swept out as he lights, by a 

 brush of hairs on the surface of the pistil. 



Each of these main types assumes specialised minor 

 forms in the various genera and species, according as 

 they have peculiarly adapted themselves to hive-bees or 

 humble-bees, to flies or to beetles. It is much the same 

 with their fruits or pods. This vetch here, as we all 

 know, is largely grown for fodder, because of its rich 

 pea-like seeds, well stored with starches and albumens 

 for the growth of the young plant. Indeed, the pea 

 kind ranks next to the grasses as a producer of human 

 foodstuffs— supplying us with peas, beans, lentils, and 

 many other well-known pulses. But these rich seeds 

 are always much sought after by animals as food ; and 

 therefore the plants have been driven to devise the most 

 curious plans for thwarting their enemies : or, in other 

 words, those which showed any tendency in the direction 

 of producing inedible pods have thereby gained an ad- 

 vantage over their competitors and survived accordingly. 

 Here, for example, is a sprig of yellow nonsuch, a clover- 

 like trailer grown in the meadows as an * artificial grass,' 

 because of its rich little beans, conceal'^d in the small 

 black kidney-shaped pods : this is a relatively ill-adapted 

 form, largely preserved by man's providence. But here 

 again is a bit of the truly wild medick, a closely allied 

 plant, which farmers hate ; for the cattle will scarcely 

 touch it, so sternly has it armed itself against their 

 dreaded depredations. In leaf, flower, and general ap- 

 pearance the two are typical pea-plants, differing but 

 very little from one another. But in their fruit they are 

 extremely unlike. The medick has a long curved pod, 

 completely twisted round and curled tightly up into 



