Wild Flowers as They Grow 



opening on the outside to meet this contingency, so 

 promptly the pollen showers down on the intruder's 

 back. The bee gets its honey and shuffles out, but 

 apparently finds its simplest path one leading side- 

 ways from the stigma ; anyway, it slips by the 

 receptive scale without touching it, and so it does 

 not cause the flower to fertilise itself. Of course, 

 if the bee proceeds to the next sepal and plunges in 

 beneath its arching roof it is bound to effect self- 

 fertihsation there — there is no help for it — but the 

 chances are even that it will prefer to pass on to 

 another flower. If a hover-fly visit this flower it 

 wiU draw up the honey with its long tongue and 

 never touch either stamen or stigma so far as 

 fertilisation purposes are concerned, and it is apt 

 to add insult to injury after it has finished its 

 gratuitous honey repast by reaching up to the 

 pollen box and taking a final course of pollen. After 

 its meal it flies away without rendering the slightest 

 service in return. But apparently the plant will 



not always be frustrated in this way, and some- 



32 



