1- LOWERS IN RELATION TO BEES. 



181 



Fig. I. Fig. 2. 



Wood Sage. 



down, of no more use, and the pistil stands erect, 

 ready for the pollen from some other flower, as you 

 see in Fig. 2. When the bee 

 visits the first flower, it does 

 not touch the pistil, but only 

 the stamens and pollen. In 

 the second stage it only 

 touches the ripe pistil. 



Again, in other flowers, 

 although stamens and pistil 

 are mature together, the pistil 

 is so situated, at the time, that 

 it cannot get the pollen be- 

 longing to its own flower. 



Again, some plants' have two kinds of flowers, the 

 one kind with only the stamens, and the other with 

 only the pistil. 



And, once more, of some kinds of flowers, one 

 whole plant will have only stamen-bearing flowers, 

 and another none but pistil-bearing flowers. 



So that, as I said, there seems to be all kinds of 

 difficulties, — and there are many more than I have 

 mentioned, — in the way "of getting pollen to its ap- 

 pointed place; and yet it must get there. 



What is the way out of the difficulty? Nature 

 has made the difficulty, how does nature provide for 

 it to be overcome .'' 



Well, first of all, you must remember that, al- 

 though in any one flower the stamens and pistil may 

 not be mature at the same time, yet that there will 

 certainly be close at hand, perhaps on the same plant, 

 other flowers in which there will be the mature pollen 



