II CARYOPHYLLACE.<E 105 



short peduncles, small, scentless, pink, or spotted with 

 white ; sometimes white. The stamens ^ are united with 

 the petals at the base, and form a yellow, fleshy swelling 

 which secretes honey. The tube of the flower is so 

 narrow, and so nearly closed by the stamens and pistil, 

 that the proboscis of Lepidoptera alone can reach the 

 honey, though flies and other insects visit it for the 

 pollen. The upper surface of the flower forms a flat 

 disk. The stamens are ten in number. Soon after the 

 flower opens five of them emerge from the tube, ripen, 

 and the anthers open. When they have shed their 

 pollen the other five do the same. During this period 

 the pistil is concealed in the tube ; but after the anthers 

 have ripened and shed most of their pollen, it also 

 emerges, and the two long stigmas expand. Under 

 these circumstances the butterflies can hardly fail to 

 carry the pollen from the anthers of young flowers to 

 the stigmas of older ones. Flies also visit this species 

 to feed on the pollen, and though they cannot obtain 

 any nourishment from flowers in the later condition, 

 still they sometimes come to them, apparently by mis- 

 take, and must therefore occasionally fertilise them. 

 This species appears to have lost the power of self- 

 fertilisation. 



D. Armeria and D. csesius are also protandrous. In 

 D. ccBsius (Cheddar Pink), which is very sweet, some 

 plants produce female flowers. This species is found in 

 Great Britain only on limestone rocks at Cheddar in 

 Somerset. 



Lychnis 



L. Githago (Corn Cockle). — The capsule opens by 

 five or ten teeth or short valves at the top. The flower 

 is generally protandrous, but in some districts homo- 

 gamous. The calyx has long green linear lobes which 

 project beyond the petals. The purple petals have long 

 claws, and are held together by the calyx. The lamina 

 bears no scale. Honey is secreted at the base of the 



^ Avebury (Lubbock), British Wild Flowers, p. 65. 



