180 



FLOWERS IN RELATION TO BEES. 



other flower, or, in some cases, to another plant of the 

 same species. It is so remarkably with the common 

 primrose. Again, in a great number of flowers, the 

 stamens are not ripe at the same time as the pistil. In 

 some the stamens are ripe first, and shed all their 

 pollen, and then afterwards the pistil appears, and 

 holds up its head ready for pollen, which now its own 

 flower cannot give it. In other cases the pistil is ripe 

 first, but cannot get pollen from its own flower, as the 

 stamens are not as yet in a sufificiehtly forward state. 

 Here is a meadow geranium. When, first of all, 

 the stamens are ripe the pistil is not ready. You see 

 this condition in Fig. i. After all the pollen has 

 been shed the- stamens die away, and the pistil 

 appears as you see it in Fig. 2. 



Fig. I. 



Meadow Geranium. 



Fig. 2. 



As another example, we have the wood sage. In 

 Fig. I you see the stamens standing forward, and the 

 pistil behind, not yet ready for pollen. Afterwards, 

 when the pollen has been shed, the stamens bend 



