126 THE BEAUTIES OF NATURE chap. 



no use to the flower in its present condition, 

 they are the last relics of lobes once mnch 

 larger, and still remaining so in some allied 

 species, but which in the Dead-nettle, being 

 no longer of any use, are gradually disap- 

 pearing ; the height of the arch has refer- 

 ence to the size of the Bee, being just so 

 much above the alighting stage that the 

 Bee, while sucking the honey, rubs its back 

 against the hood and thus comes in contact 

 first with the stigma and then with the 

 anthers, the pollen-grains from which adhere 

 to the hairs on the Bee's back, and are thus 

 carried off to the next flower which the Bee 

 visits, when some of them are then licked 

 off by the viscid tip of the stigma.-^ 



In the Salvias, the common blue Salvia of 

 our gardens, for instance, — a plant allied to 

 the Dead-nettle, — the flower (Fig. 9) is con- 

 structed on the same plan, but the arch is 

 much larger, so that the back of the Bee does 

 not nearly reach it. The stamens, however, 

 have undergone a remarkable modification. 

 Two of them have become small and f unction- 



1 Lubbock, Flowers and Insects. 



