78 WILD FLOWER FAMILIES 
four or five inches long, and linear-lanceolate in 
shape; in the Carolinian form they are two or 
three inches long, and ovate-lanceolate in shape. 
The blossoms are very similar. 
The Spring Beauty is an excellent example 
of what the botanists call protandry,—that is, the 
SPRING BEAUTY 
shedding of the pollen by the stamens before the 
the stigma opens. The first day that the petals 
unfold the stamens stand erect around the pistil, 
and are already shedding their pollen. But the 
three-lobed stigma of the pistil is not exposed; 
the stigmatic surfaces are tightly pressed against 
each other. On this first day the bees visit the 
