:386 



AUTOGAMY. 



poUen lying on the lowest perianth-leaf or with that still sticking to one or other 

 of the anthers (see fig. 311 *). 



Of the plants in which autogamy is brought about by inflection of the pedicel 

 combined with inflection or folding of the petals, two groups will be taken here as 

 representing two difierent forms of the phenomenon. These groups consist of the 

 ViolacesB of the Melanium tribe and the stemless Gentians. The manner in which 

 the pollen is transferred to the stigma in Violets through the agency of insects has 



■Fig. 311. — ^Autogamy resulting from inflection of the pedicel combined with inclination of the style to the place where the 



pollen has been deposited : Allium ChanuBmoly. 



1 Shows the aerial portions of the plant ; nat. size. ', », * Single flowers with the front perianth-leaves removed ; slightly 

 magnified. Xhey are in the successive stages leading to autogamy. 



been already, described on p. 280, and illustrated in figs. 279 ^' ^- * on p. 279. The 

 'pollen thus deposited by insects on the slightly -projecting flap of the capitate 

 Stigma is derived, of course, from other flowers, and the result of its transf ereaice is 

 a crossing between the flowers either of one or of two species. Autogamy is in 

 ■general scarcely possible in the Violet during the first part of the flowering-period. 

 If pollen is shaken out of the cone of anthers on to the proboscis of an insect which 

 is in the act of dusting the front surface of the stigmatic lobe with foreign pollenj 

 this new supply may, perhaps, be rtabbed off on to the back of the stigmaticlobe as 



