24 HEATH— CHERVIL. [CHAP 



an inverted bell. The pistil represents the clapper, 

 and projects a little beyond the mouth of the bell. 

 The stamens are eight in number, and form a circle 

 round it, the anthers being united by their sides into 

 a continuous ring. Each anther has a lateral hole, 

 but as long as they touch one another, the pollen 

 cannot drop out. Each also sends out a long process, 

 so that the ring of anthers is surrounded by a row of 

 spokes. Now when a bee comes to suck the honey, 

 it first touches the end of the pistij, on which it could 

 hardly fail to deposit some pollen had it previously 

 visited another plant. It then presses its proboscis 

 up the bell, in doing which it would pass between 

 two of the spokes, and pressing them apart, would 

 dislocate the ring of anthers : a shower of pollen 

 would thus fall from the open cells on to the head of 

 the bee. 



In many cases the effect of the colouring and scent 

 is greatly enhanced by the association of several 

 flowers in one bunch, or raceme ; as for instance in 

 the wild hyacinth, the lilac, and other familiar species. 

 In the great family of Umbelliferse, this arrangement 

 is still ftirther taken advantage of, as in the common 

 Wild Chervil {Chcurophyllum sylvestre, Fig. 19). 



In this group the honey is not, as in the flowers 

 just described, situated at the bottom of a tube, but 

 lies exposed, and is therefore accessible to a great 

 variety of small insects. The union of the florets 

 into a head, moreover, not only renders them more 

 conspicuous, but also enables the insects to visit a 

 greater number of flowers in a given time. 



It might at first be supposed that in such small 



