226 BRITISH FLOWERING PLANTS chap. 



later ones male ; the complete ones were generally 

 protandrous. The plant is covered with long white 

 spreading hairs. The specific name recalls the leaf 

 arrangement, four in a whorl, crosswise. 



G. MoUugo. — At first the stamens stand upright, 

 and the anthers are covered all round with pollen, 

 while the two stigmas are close together, though 

 mature. Gradually the stamens turn outwards, and 

 eventually bend quite out of the flower, while the two 

 stigmas separate. 



G. saxatile agrees with G. Mollugo as regards the 

 flowers, and so does G. verum, the common Lady's 

 Bedstraw. The last-named is glabrous or pubescent. 

 In some localities the flowers are said to vary con- 

 siderably in size, while Knuth found them on the North 

 Friesian islands all approximately of the same size. 



VALERIANACE^. 



In this order honey is secreted in a cup or spur of 

 the corolla. 



Valeriana 



The flowers have 3 stamens, and the calyx forms a 

 feathery pappus in the fruit. 



We have three species — one, V. dioica, is dioecious ; 

 V. pyrenaica has large cordate, the other, V. officinalis, 

 pinnate, leaves. 



V. officinalis. — The flowers are protandrous. As 

 honey guides there are five purple lines, which gradually 

 fade. The honey is protected by some hairs on the 

 inner side of the corolla tube. In the first stage the 

 stamens, with open anthers, project above the corolla ; 

 in the second the three stigmas. The anthers develop 

 one after the other. 



V. dioica. — Sprengel long ago pointed out that as 

 the male flowers were larger than the female, insects are 

 likely to visit them first. According to Kerner the 



