FLOWERS AND THEIR USES 



267 



there are some plants living in the water, such as the com- 

 mon tape-grass (also known as "eel-grass" and "wild 

 celery," Figs. 155 and 156), which depend upon currents 

 of water to carry the 

 pollen to. the stigma. 

 It is not the pollen 

 alone of the tape- 

 grass that is carried, 

 however, but the 

 whole staminate 

 flower. This floats 

 about, as the illus- 

 tration shows, until 

 it comes in contact 

 with a pistillate 

 flower. There are 

 some plants whose 

 flowers are polli- 

 nated by humming 

 birds and other 

 birds, others are pol- 

 linated by snails and 

 slugs, and a few in the tropics are pollinated by bats. 



278. Pollination by the Wind. — It has already been 

 pointed out that pollination by the wind is an extravagant 

 method, because the pollen is scattered in a haphazard way 

 and only an occasional grain can land upon a stigma. Never- 

 theless, many angiosperms, as well as all g5Tnnosperms, 

 depend upon the wind for pollination, and 3ret are very suc- 

 cessful in forming seeds and in multipljdng their numbers. 

 Wind-pollinated angiosperms are chiefly plants that grow 

 in locations where the wind may well serve their purpose. 

 If they are small, like the grasses and sedges, great numbers 

 of plants of the same species commonly grow close to one 

 another in places like meadows and marshes where the wind 



Fig. 156. — Staminate and pistillate flowers 

 of the tape-grass. The staminate flowers are 

 caught in a slight depression in the surface of 

 the water about a pistillate flower, and the 

 pollen of some of the stamens is thus brought 

 into contact with the pistil. After \\'ylie. 



