104 Flashlights ox Natfrk 



greenish c.ilyx or cup, iiiul they contain within thcni 

 ten stamens or pollen-baj^s, as weil as a tiny cap- 

 sule like a miniature pea-pod. At the tip of this 

 capsule is a small hook — the sensitive surface on 

 which the pollen lias to he deposited. Vou would 

 say at hrst si^ht that under such circumstances, 

 male and females heinj^ mixed up in one, cross- 

 fertilisation nuist he impossible — that each flower 

 must surely be fertilised by its own pollen. Hut 

 the clever clovers have invented an inj^eiiious little 

 device of their own for overcomin<^ this difficulty : 

 the pollen-baj^s and the sensitive surface of the 

 capsule do not arrive at maturity toj^ether. in 

 this way each flower or plant ^ets fertilised itself 

 at one time by pollen from another plant, and at 

 another time dusts the bee that visits it with its 

 own pollen, which the bee transfers in due course 

 to the next plant it visits.^ 



No. 6 represents part of a plant of Dutch clover 

 — the common white clover of our meadows and 

 pastures. It is called Dutch, not I believe because 

 it is particularly common in Holland more than in 

 other European countries, but because the prudent 

 Dutch were the first agriculturists to collect and 

 export the seed of this particular clover separated 

 from all other seeds of similar but less useful 

 species. It happens to be a particularly j^ood 

 fodder plant, and it j^rew wild originally through- 

 out the whole of Europe and temperate Asia, from 

 the Mediterranean to the north of Norway. Hut 



* I hope technical botanists will fori;ive nie sonic slii;ht but unimpor- 

 tant simplifications in this not entirely accurate nioile of presentation. 



