j6 FUMA RIA CE^E. [c h a p. 



a ring round a globular or ovoid pistil, which is 

 crowned by a circular disk, on which the stigmas 

 radiate from the centre. The flowers secrete no 

 honey, but are visited for the sake of the pollen. 

 Ov/ing to the weakness of the petals, insects naturally 

 alight on the stigma, which forms a most convenient 

 stage for them in the centre of the stamens, and they 

 thus naturally carry the pollen from one flower to 

 another. 



FUMARIACE^. 



This natural order contains only two British genera, 

 Fumaria and Corydalis. The flowers of Fumaria 

 have not yet, I think, been satisfactorily explained. 

 Their form and arrangement are very singular, but 

 they are not very conspicuous, and are said to be 

 little visited by insects, being, according to Miiller, 

 self-fertile. 



In Corydalis, on the contrary, the flowers are much 

 larger, more conspicuous, and, at least in C. cava, 

 are said to have lost the power of self -fertilisation. 

 Hildebrand has found (Ueber die Bestaiibungs Vorrich- 

 tungen bei den Fumariaceen) that they are absolutely 

 sterile with their own pollen, and only imperfectly 

 fertile with that from other flowers of the same plant, 

 so that they can only be completely fertilised by that 

 from a different plant. The tube of the flower is 

 12 millimetres long, and as the honey onl}' occupies 

 at most 4 — 5 millimetres, it is inaccessible to the 

 Hive bee, whose proboscis is only 6 mm. long, and 

 almost so to the common humble bee, in which it 

 is 7 — 9, or at most lo mm. long. The latter can 



