STAMENS OF THE BILBERRIES 



223 



The stamens of the Bilberries, especially the True 

 Bilberry and the Bog Vaccinium, are interesting, and 

 should be examined with a pocket-lens (Text-fig. 

 XXI.). Each stamen consists of a flattened stalk, 

 bearing above and on its inner side two flagon-shaped 

 structures, placed side by side. Each flagon is really 

 a half-anther, and it opens at the top by a pore, 

 through which the pollen escapes. From the stalk, 

 continued up the back of the 

 flagon, a little horn-like process 

 projects from each half-anther. 

 "When a bee visits a flower in 

 search of the nectar at the base of 

 the stamens, it touches these horns 

 with its proboscis, and thus shakes 

 the anther, and is dusted with pollen 

 thrown out through the pores at the 

 top of the stamen. This pollen may 

 be carried to another flower, in 

 which the stigmas are ripe, and 

 thus cross-fertilisation is efiected. 



In the Eed Whortleberry the half-anthers are not 

 horned, but the tips of the flagons are produced into 

 long spout-like structures, with a pore opening at the 

 top of each. In this species the mouth of the corolla 

 is not contracted — an adaptation to ensm-e that the 

 insect strikes the horns of the stamens — but is widely 

 open, and the spout-Hke tips of the stamens no doubt 

 play a similar part to the horns, in conjunction with 

 the contracted throat of the corolla found in 



Fie. XXI.— Stamen of 

 a Bilberry ( Vaccinium), 



p, pores at the apex of 

 the anthers, through 

 which the pollen is 

 shed; a, anther; /, 

 filament. 



