The Field Rose 



There is no honey, but the flowery pollen dust is 

 sufiicient to give a good feed to many an insect, 

 and to the bees pollen " bee-bread " is just as 

 necessary to life as honey is. In the centre of the 

 stamens is a green column, and this column is one 

 of the chief idios5nicrasies of this rose. In all other 

 roses the seed-bearing parts of the flower are quite 

 distinct one from the other. Each has one seed at 

 its base, and a column with receptive tip rising 

 from it; the lower part is sunk in a cup at the 

 stalk end, and the columns rise above its margin 

 and show as a gtoup in the centre of the stamens. 

 But here all the columns unite and rise up as a 

 single pillar in the centre of the flower. The re- 

 ceptive top is ready at the same moment that the 

 stamens begin to shed their pollen, and it would 

 seem as if the plant encouraged self-f ertilisation ; in 

 fact, it appears inevitable. But inasmuch as this 

 column is the very point on which insects alight, it 

 follows that they almost certainly put on it pollen 

 from outside sources before their movements can 



61 8i 



