294 



CLASSIFICATION 



tries to enter the flower, and pollinate it. The stigma 

 is so sticky that it holds the pollinia fast, and, over- 

 coming the pulling force of the bee, separates them 

 from the head of the insect, or at any rate ruptures 

 the fine threads which bind the pollen -grains into 

 masses, and retains some of the pollen-grains if not 



the whole pollinia. If 

 the caudicles did not 

 bend, the pollinia 

 brought from the first 

 flower would have 

 touched the rostellum 

 of the second flower 

 and not the stigma, and 

 the pollination would 

 thus have been im- 

 possible. Leaving the 

 pollinia or portions of 

 them attached to the 

 stigma of the second 

 flower, it carries on its 

 forehead a fresh load of 

 pollinia from the latter 

 flower and takes them 

 to the third flower, and 

 so on from flower to 

 flower. Though cross-pollination is the rule in the 

 family, self-pollination is by no means uncommon. 

 Common plants: rasna {Vanda Roxburghii) (fig. 

 265), an epiphytic herb with leafy stem, common on 

 Mango and other trees in nearly every province; 

 swet-huli (Zeuxine sulcata), an erect terrestrial grass- 

 looking herb in open grassy plains all over Bengal. 



Nat. Order 12. Hydrocharidacece. — This is a family 

 of aquatic herbs with floating or submerged opposite 



Fig. 365.— Rasna (Ffl«f& Roxburghii) 

 a,r.. Aerial root. 



