224 BRITISH FLOWEIIING PLANTS chap. 



beyond the stamens, so that insects are almost sure to 

 touch it before reaching the anthers. This delicate 

 little plant is sometimes glabrous, sometimes covered 

 with fine glandular hairs, which are specially developed 

 on two bracts which stand immediately below, and 

 almost close over the fruit, thus probably assisting in 

 its dissemination. The plant was named by Grronovius 

 in honour of Linnaeus ; a spray is generally introduced 

 in portraits of the great naturalist. 



KUBIACEiE 



A large world-wide order which is represented in 

 Britain by the tribe 



Stellate 



The tribe is so named because the leaves appear to 

 be in whorls. There are, however, in reality only two 

 leaves at each node with buds in their axils. These 

 are opposite one another. The others are stipules, and 

 have no buds in their axils. Where there are six leaflets, 

 these correspond to two leaf - blades and their four 

 stipules. Where there are only four leaflets, this is 

 considered to be due to a coalescence of stipules by 

 pairs, as occurs also in the case of the Hop. 



Sherardia 



Honey is secreted by the fleshy base of the pistil, and 

 concealed in a short narrow tube. 



S. arvensis is gynodicEcious. The complete flowers 

 are slightly protandrous and rather larger than the 

 female. Kirchner, however, describes the flowers as 

 homogamous. In any case the flower is self - fertile. 

 Knuth observes that from the narrowness of the tube 

 Sherardia would appear to be especially adapted to 

 small butterflies. As a matter of fact, however, I do 

 not find that any are recorded as visiting it. It seems 



