LILIACEAE 



469 



project beyond and enclose the petals. There are six stamens, the three outer 

 possessing two lateral teeth above the base. In species examined by Schulz, in the 

 Riesengebirge, the anthers mature at the same time as the stigma, but Warming 

 describes those in Greenland as feebly protogynous. In a later stage of anthesis 

 the stigma projects a little be)'ond the anthers. Self-pollination by fall of pollen 

 is easily possible in consequence of the position of the flower. Access to the nectar 

 can only be obtained through three narrow canals, which indicates humble-bee 

 pollinators, although the normal visitors have not yet been observed. 



905. Paris L. 



Markedly protogynous pollen flowers, which Hermann Miiller describes as 

 deceptive. 



2811. P. quadrifolia L. (Herm. Muller, 'Fertlsn.,' p. 557, ' Weit. Beob.,' I, 

 p. 283 ; Kerner, ' Nat. Hist. PI.,' Eng. Ed. i, II, pp. 87, 341 ; MacLeod, Bot. Jaarb. 

 Dodonaea, Ghent, v, 1893, p. 314 ; 

 Kirchner, 'Flora v. Stuttgart,' p. 72.) — 

 Flowers of this species perhaps belong to 

 class Fd (cf. Vol. I, p. 135). They are 

 devoid of nectar and fragrance, and the 

 stigmas are mature when the flowers open; 

 the yellow anthers do not dehisce until 

 some days later, but the stigmas still 

 remain receptive. In the first stage of 

 anthesis the inconspicuous flowers offer 

 no nutriment to insect visitors, but 

 carrion-flies are attracted to them by the 

 sometimes shining, but generally dull, 

 dark-purple ovary and stigma, which 

 deceptively suggest the presence of putre- 

 fying flesh. Later they produce powdery 



pollen, which floats away in a small cloud when the stamens are lightly struck. 

 As the stigmas are still receptive, self-pollination can also take place ; Kerner says 

 that this is effected by contact of anthers and stigma. 



Female flowers sometimes occur with stamens devoid of anthers; these then 

 resemble the petals in form and colour. 



Warnstorf describes the pollen-grains as yellow in colour, irregular, roundish to 

 ellipsoidal, finely tuberculate, about 40-50 jx long and 35 jx broad. 



Visitors. — These are rare. I have watched the plant under favourable 

 conditions, and never seen any. Herm. Miiller observed flies (including Scatophaga 

 merdaria F.), and Kirchner a moth. 



Fig. 405. Paris quadrifolia^ L. (from nature). 

 Flower, natural size, in its 6rst (feinaJe) stag;e : the 

 stigmas (j) are already mature, the anthers \a) still 

 closed, ca^ sepals; co, petals. 



906. Trillium L. 



Kerner {' Nat. Hist. PL,' Eng. Ed. i, II, p. 311) describes all the species of this 

 genus as protogynous, so that cross-pollination is favoured at first. In T. grandi- 

 florum SaUsb. (op. cit.), two anthers are situated in each of the three angles formed 



