76 Flowers and their Unbidden Guests, 



is furnished by Leonurus Jieterffphyllus Sweet. Here, 

 as in most Labiates, the style and anthers are placed 

 under the roof-like upper lip, so as to be sheltered 

 from rain and dew. The mouth of the corolla is 

 however so widely open, that small flying insects could 

 pass their proboscis along the lower surface of the 

 corolla-tube, and reach the nectar at the bottom of 

 the flower, without touching the stigma or anthers, 

 which lie concealed under the upper lip. This 

 robbery however is rendered impracticable by the under 

 side of the coroUa-tube being studded on its inner sur- 

 face with numerous sharp pricklets, into contact with 

 which no insect will bring its proboscis and antennae. 

 The insect therefore is led to try some other mode of 

 access. Avoiding the pricHets, it makes its way in 

 higher up under the upper lip, and in so doing rtibs 

 either against the stigma or, if the flowering process has 

 reached a more advanced stage, against the anthers. 



Precisely the same occurs in Pedicularis recutita, 

 (Ederi, foliosa, rosea, and verticillata. It would occupy 

 too much time, and moreover would be out of place 

 here, to describe the no less complicated than wondrous 

 mechanisms of these flowers ; mechanisms which aim 

 primarily at cross-fertilisation by the aid of insects, but 

 yet, in default of insect visits, produce autogamy. It 

 will be enough to give one example to illustrate this 

 function of pricklets ; and we may select the corolla of 

 Pedicularis recutita, since this is represented in Plate II. 



