CHAPTER IX. 



THE WIND AS CAIUIIER. 



x\ll flowers do not depend for fertilisation upon 

 insects. In many plants it is the wind that 

 serves the purpose of common carrier of pollen 

 from blossom to blossom. 



Clearly, flowers which lay themselves out to 

 be fertilised by the wind will not be likely to 

 produce the same devices as those which lay 

 themselves out to be fertilised by insects. 

 Natural selection here will favour different quali- 

 ties. Bright-coloured petals and stores of honey 

 will not serve to allure the unconscious breeze ; 

 such delicate adjustments of part to part as we 

 saw in the case of bee and blossom will no longer 

 be serviceable. What will most be needed now 

 is quantities of pollen ; and that pollen must 

 hang out in such a way from the cup as to be 

 easily dislodged by passing breezes. Hence 

 wind-fertilised flowers differ from insect-ferti- 

 lised in the following particulars. They have 

 never brilliant corollas or calyxes. The stamens 

 are usually very numerous; they hang out 

 freely on long stalks or filaments ; and they 

 quiver in the wind with the slightest movement. 

 On the other hand, the stigmas are feathery and 

 protrude far from the flower, so as to catch every 

 passing grain of pollen. More frequently than 

 among the insect-fertilised section, the sexes are 

 separated on different plants or isolated in dis- 

 tinct masses on neighbouring branches. But 



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