Wild Flowers as They Grow 



are sensitive, and if they happen to be touched 

 they suddenly contract ; the tunnel (into which, by 

 the way, the pollen dust has been poured) shoots 

 back over the circular brush and along the ovary 

 column. Naturally, all the pollen is swept out in 

 this sudden movement. 



Prof. Haberlandt, of Graz, who has made a 

 special study of the power of sensation in plants 

 and the various organs of sensation that they possess, 

 points out that in the Cornflower the sensitive spot 

 in the stamens is just that part that is covered by 

 the circular brush of the ovary column. No other 

 spot is sensitive, and if the stamens are touched 

 with, say, a hair, on this spot they will at once 

 contract— if below it or above, they take no notice. 

 This interesting little experiment is open to anyone 

 to try for himself. Doubtless the spot is one 

 that is specially likely to be touched by insects as 

 they scramble about the bloom, and the pollen that 

 is shot out of the anther-tunnel necessarily, at least 

 in part, adheres to them. 



i8o 



