260 BRITISH FLOWERING PLANTS chap. 



Vitis-IdcBa, with a bell-shaped, the other, V. Oxycoccos, 

 with a spreading corolla. The pollen is dry and pulveru- 

 lent. The anthers are provided with appendages as in 

 Erica, and also have an orifice at the tip, but the pollen 

 is prevented from falling by the anthers being applied 

 against the pistil — not, as in Erica, against one another. 

 When the ring of anthers is dislocated by the bee the 

 pollen falls on the insect. 



V. Myrtillus (Bilberry or Whortleberry). — The stems 

 are glabrous, angular, green, and supplement the leaves 

 as organs of carbon -assimilation. The flowers, which 

 hang down, are a pale greenish white, rich in honey, 

 supplied by a ridge which surrounds the base of the 

 ovary. The corolla is swollen at the base and con- 

 tracted at the summit so as to leave a comparatively 

 narrow entrance. The stigma projects a little, but 

 the anthers remain in the bell. This is the favourite 

 flower of Vespa rufa} The berries are nearly black, 

 which probably is more conspicuous against the sur- 

 rounding vegetation than red would be. 



V. uliginosum. — A smaller plant, but more woody, 

 and with nearly cylindrical branches. The flowers are 

 smaller, but redder and more conspicuous. They are also 

 more open, and therefore accessible to a larger number 

 of insects. The berries are nearly black. The plant 

 is common in the Highlands and our northern counties. 

 V. Vitis-Idaea (Cowberry). — The stems are glabrous, 

 procumbent, and straggling. The flowers are in terminal 

 drooping racemes. The corolla is white or a pale flesh 

 colour, with spreading, but not reflexed, lobes. The 

 filaments are hairy. The anthers are elongated, and 

 almost as long as the filaments. According to Warming 

 the flowers are protogynous, and in some cases the 

 pistil is wanting. On the under sides of the leaves 

 are small depressions, each of which is nearly filled by 

 a club-shaped structure composed of thin-walled cells. 

 These absorb the water which collects in the little pits. 

 See also Viola palustris (p. 29). 



^ Evans, Entomologists' Monthly Mag. 1903. 



