POLLINATION AND FECUNDATION 53 



11. A slight variation from the foregoing is seen in the Bean 

 blossom, where the keel is coiled into a snout. Within this 

 are the stamens, also the pistil with an oblique stigma and a 

 hairj' style, the latter loosely retaining the early discharged 

 pollen. When a bee, in alighting to search for nectar, presses 

 the wing-petals downward, the stigma and hairy style loaded 

 with pollen protrude, striking the front part or side of the in- 

 sect. Therefore, visiting a succession of flowers, the bee trans- 

 ports pollen from one to another. In the Mountain Laurel 

 (Kalmia) the anthers of the ten stamens are lodged in cavities 

 in the corolla, and the filaments are curved backward as the 

 flower expands (Fig. 82). Bumble-bees, hovering over the 



Fig. 82. Fig. 83. Fig. 84. 



flowers, searching for nectar, liberate the stamens by occa- 

 sional contact, which, in springing back straight, discharge the 

 pollen from pores (Fig. 83) at the top of the anthers. Some 

 of the poUen-graiijs which strike the under side of the bumble- 

 bee and adhere to it, will, when the next flower is approached, 

 be deposited on its stigma, thus bringing about cross-pollination. 

 12. The most varied and wonderful contrivances for cross- 

 ing are found in the family of Orchids (Fig. 84). The stamens 

 are generally reduced to one and this is united in a column 

 with the pistil, indicated by the term gynandrous (Gr. gyna, 

 pistil ; andres, stamens). In case of some of the species the 

 pollen in each anther-cell is united into a mass, and furnished 



