98 HETEEOSTYJiED DIMOEPHIO PLANTS. Chap. IU. 



with papillae, with their heads already charged with 

 pollen from the stamens of corresponding height 

 borne by the flowers of the other form, and legitimate 

 fertilisation is thus ensured. 



Thus we can understand the meaning of the torsion 

 of the styles in the long-styled flowers alone, as well 

 as their divergence in the short-styled flowers. 



One other point is worth notice. In botanical works 

 many flowers are said to be fertilised in the bud. This 

 statement generally rests, as far as I can discover, on 

 the anthers opening in the bud ; no evidence being 

 adduced that the stigma is at this period mature, or 

 that it is not subsequently acted on by pollen brought 

 from other flowers. In the case of Oephalanthera 

 grandiflora I have shown* that precocious and partial 

 self-fertilisation, with subsequent full fertilisation, is 

 the regular course of events. The belief that the 

 flowers of many plants are fertilised in the bud, that 

 is, are perpetually self-fertilised, is a most effectual bar 

 to understanding their real structure. I am, however, 

 far from wishing to assert that some flowers, during 

 certain seasons, are not fertilised in the bud ; for I 

 have reason to believe that this is the case. A good 

 observer,t resting his belief on ;the usual kind of 

 evidence, states that in Linvm Austriaeum (which is 

 heterostyled, and is considered by Planchon as a variety 

 of L. jpererme) the anthers open the evening before 

 the expansion of the flowers, and that the stigmas are 

 then almost always fertilised. Now we know positively 

 that, so far from Linwm perenne being fertilised by its 

 own pollen in the bud, its own pollen is as powerless 

 on the stigma as so much inorganic dust. 



Lmwmjlavvm. — The pistil of the long-styled form 



* 'Fertilisation' of Orchids,' f 'Etudes sur la Gdogr. Bot." 



p. 108.— 2nd edit. 1877, p. 84. H. Leooq, 1856, torn. v. p. 325. 



