214 The Golden Rule for Flowers 



them, but, though still at a distance, , is the means of 

 bringing them into being. 



Of course, as pollen is so light, and easily blown 

 about, many plants may at times be fertilized by the 

 wind, besides those which are especially dependent 

 upon it. Not many, one would suppose, are fertilized 

 by water ; yet there are one or two instances of this 

 too curious to be passed over. 



One of these is that of a small water-plant, nearly 

 related to the duckweeds, which bears two blossoms 

 enclosed together in a boat-shaped sheath, which floats 

 upon the water. In the upper part of the sheath is a 

 perfect pistil, with its ovary, short stalk, and stigma ; 

 in the lower part are the anthers containing pollen, 

 which cannot by any possibility reach the stigma unless 

 rain happens to fall when it is ready. If it does, the 

 sheath is gradually filled with water, and the pollen is 

 floated up till it reaches the right place. 



There is a still more curious arrangement in the case 

 of the Vallisneria, which grows in the ditches in Italy, 

 and is well known, though not in a flowering state, in 

 fresh-water aquariums. This plant bears its pistillate 

 and staminate blossoms on separate roots, which, how- 

 ever, seem to grow near one another. The pistillate, 

 fruit-bearing blossom grows on a long, slender stalk 

 twisted like a corkscrew, which uncurls and raises the 

 bud just above the surface of the water when it is 

 about to open. The barren, staminate, or pollen- 

 bearing flowers, grow in great numbers on short, up- 

 right stalks underwater ; but just about the time when 

 the other blossoms up above open and want their help, 

 these buds loose themselves from their stalks and rise 



