222 Field, Forest, and Wayside Flowers 
the favorite guests. The stamens of the bouncing 
Bet are ten in number. Soon after the flower 
opens five of them thrust their heads out of the 
tube, and their anthers ripen and split. When 
they have shed their pollen, the other five emerge, 
mature, and open. 
All this time the young pistil lies concealed in 
the flower-tube, but, after the second quintette of 
stamens have given away most of their store, it 
comes out of its seclusion, and the two long stig- 
mas expand themselves. The butterfly guests by 
day and the moth visitors by night carry pollen 
from the stamens of younger flowers to the pistils 
of older ones. 
Many members of the pink family, to which 
“‘bouncing Bet” belongs, have formed the habit of 
ripening two successive quintettes of stamens, and, 
last of all, the pistil, This arrangement makes 
sure that the flower will set seed only by aid of 
pollen brought from another, and that its seeds (if 
they are formed) will be endowed with great vital- 
ity. But the family is placed entirely at the mercy 
of flying insects, for without their ministrations 
no seed can be set at all. So the whole future of 
such flower families depends upon the success with 
which its members entice their winged friends. 
