Wild Flowers as They Grow 



flowers it is either a tiny fork, as in the mint, or 



just a httle knob, as in the cowsUp. If we sHp the 



corolla off an adjacent monkey-flower — ^it is easily 



detached, and carries the stamens with it — this organ 



is left quite naked and we can study it at our leisure. 



It is carried on the top of a long curved column, and 



when fully open is a round plate with a hinge across 



it. It is covered with fine hairs, and the edge is 



daintily fringed. If it be gently touched with a 



pin we can watch it promptly close like a book. After 



a few minutes it wiU open again, but will repeat 



the closing process on being once more touched. 



Both these positions are suggested in the protruding 



stigmas shown in our picture — ^the upper one open, 



the lower one closed. 



If we now return to the adjacent whole flower, 



the working of the plant's schemes is obvious. 



First we discover that the rough flooring of hairs 



strikes dismay into any small creeping insect that 



adventures towards the cave. It can never make 



its way through it any more than we can push far 



128 



