Wild Flowers as They Grow 



virgin stores of honey must rest on a petal and 

 push under the ripe stamens to get to it, but however 

 much pollen showers on her and however much she 

 moves about the flower no self-fertilisation of the 

 flower can happen, and she must go away carrying 

 all her burden. As the hours and days pass, succes- 

 sive rings of stamens — working inwards — ripen, and 

 as they do so they always bend a Httle outwards 

 and strew their pollen on the honey-seekers. Finally, 

 the innermost ring of stamens is reached by the 

 wave of ripening, and the stigmas, too, share in it. 

 This is the moment for cross-fertilisation through the 

 agency of a chance visitor. But at this stage the 

 little flies wandering about the flower are also certain 

 to disturb the stamens so that they rub upon the 

 adjacent waiting stigmas, and self-fertihsation is in- 

 evitable, if f ertiUsation is not otherwise effected. So 

 the Buttercup makes quite certain of its future, and 

 we discover why it encourages creeping flies even 

 though they will not act as carriers from blossom to 

 blossom. Each flower blossoms for seven days. Later 



54 



