THE ALPINE ANEMONE 39 



we shall find that many of them are entirely male, 

 the ovaries or female organs having been completely 

 suppressed, and stamens only being present. This 

 remarkable phenomenon — the occurrence of male 

 unisexual flowers, in addition to flowers with both 

 sexes (hermaphrodite) — is probably far from infrequent 

 among Alpines. It occurs in the case of the White 

 Veratrum {Veratrum album, Linn.) (p. 123), another 

 typical pasture plant, and also in the White Dryas 

 (p. 128) and the Mountain Avens (p. 128). Its 

 significance is not yet clearly understood, but may 

 be connected with the fact that the flowers of the 

 Alpine Anemone are quite devoid of honey, pollen 

 forming the sole attraction to insects. 



In the photograph on Plate VI. the lowest flower 

 has stamens only, and two at least of the six other 

 flowers are also male, the highest flower being 

 typically bisexual. Two male flowers are also seen 

 on Plate VII., Fig. 2. 



The fruit-head of the Alpine Anemone (Plate V., 

 Fig. 2) is a very beautiful structure. The individual 

 fruits consist of a small sac below, enclosing a single 

 seed, prolonged above into a long, feathery structure 

 called an awn. A very large number of these awned 

 fruits are borne in a head. It is interesting to examine 

 different stages in the formation of this fruit (Plate 

 VIII., Fig. 1, and Text-fig. II.). The awn grows in 

 length exceedingly rapidly. At the beginning of the 

 flowering stage, the ovary, which later forms the fruit, 

 will be found to be rather small in comparison (Text- 



