FERTILIZATION OF FLOWERS BY INSECTS. 279 
small bee, formerly noticed by Réaumur, the Anthocopa papaveris, 
cuts from the flower of the wild poppy pieces of the petal for 
lining the walls of its cells. 
A third condition is a suitable conformation of the pollen gran- 
ules and the stigmas. The pollen should be able to attach itself 
to the bodies of insects, and the stigmas should be able to detach 
it therefrom. 
This affixing the pollen to the bodies of insects could not occur 
except by means of a spinose surface of the pollen granules, as is 
the case in the genera Malva and Taraxacum, or a light viscous 
coating as in most plants: or unless, as in the Orchidacem and the 
Asclepiadacer, there is a singular mechanism which attaches 
to the bodies of the insects the entire mass of pollen contained in 
the anther-lobes. Hence we see why we should not expect to find 
in entomophilous flowers the dry and smooth pollen of the anem- 
ophilous.* 
Instead of plumose stigmas, fitted to collect pollen diffused in 
the air, and appropriate to anemophilous plants, we find the stig- 
mas of entomophilous flowers smooth or papillose, but ee 
more or less visci P 
All the many differences’ in colors, odors, pollen and honey, i 
in the structure of the pollen and the stigmas, which characterize 
entomophilous flowers, can be explained with entire ease if we 
think how infinitely varied is the mode in which the numerous pha- 
lanx of anthophilous insects can transfer pollen from one 
to another. Therefore we should not expect to find perfection 
reached in this or that individual flower, for we see that different 
plants, in their relations with insects occupy different grades of 
perfection, which is in entire accord with the Darwinian doc- 
apparently suck by preference the red, fleshy disk ( me cricre md nature of which 
is som — in Controversy) which encloses its carpe 
*S is found pollen per- 
fectly smooth, pulverulent, and light. But kah these cases it is easy to acconnt for the 
phenomenon 
~ genera Borago, Cyclamen, Galanthus, eto. The flowers os nd and the connivent 
The bees i and 
a ere it, sprinkle the breast t with pollen. It is clear that if the pollen had not been 
h and pulvyerulent, its discharge an not have been effected and the flora! 
pra in question would be of no 
For the same reason the pollen o f Rhinanthus is pav dry, as i it 
has to be scattered upon the backs of bees. 
Lik i and the genera Solanum, 
Casali, Erica and — 
others, the pulverosity ¢ of the pollen is in evident relation with the dehiscence of ns 
anthers, having pores at their summits. 
