326 



BRITISH FLOWERING PLANTS 



small insects from creeping down the tube and so 

 getting at the honey. Lamium, in fact, like so many 

 of our other wild flowers, is especially adapted for 

 humble bees. They alight on the lower lip, which 

 projects at the side, so as to afford them a leverage, by 

 means of which they may press the proboscis down the 

 tube to the honey ; while, on the other hand, the 

 arched upper lip, in its size, form, and position, is 

 admirably adapted not only as a protection against rain, 



Fig. 211. Fig. 212. 



Fig. 211. — Lamium alimn. White Dead-nettle. 

 Fig. 212. — Flower magnified. 



Fia. 213. — Section of flower magnified, a, anthers ; 

 w, lower lip of corolla ; st^ stigmas. 



Fig. 213. 



ca, calyx ; co, corolla ; 



but also to prevent the anthers {a a) and pistil {st) 

 from yielding too easily to the pressure of the insect, 

 and thus to ensure that it should press the pollen, which 

 it has brought from other flowers, against the pistil. 

 The stamens do not form a ring round the pistil, as is so 

 usual. On the contrary, one stamen is absent or rudi- 

 mentary, while the other four lie along the outer arch of 

 the flower, on each side of the pistil. They are not of 

 equal length, but one pair is shorter than the other ; the 

 inner pair in some species, the outer pair in others, being 

 the longest. Now, why is this ? Probably, as Dr. 



