AGENCY OF INSECTS IN FERTILIZING PLANTS. 405 
ing. By applying a low magnifying power, the pollen 
was seen with its long tube thrust into the stigma before 
anthers had shown themselves above the calyx. While 
within the calyx the filaments are folded upon themselves, 
which accounts for their great length as soon as as come 
forth. 
The Broad-leaved Plantain (Plantago major Linn.), so 
common about door-yards, resembles the one above men- 
tioned as regards its mode of fertilization. 
On the Iong spikes of flowers of the False Indigo and 
Lead-plant (Amorpha fruticosa Linn., and A. canescens 
Nuttall), the bees and wasps were seen beginning at the 
base on the older flowers, and so passing up, visiting 
those above in which the anthers were still young and 
enclosed by the corolla. Here, as in the Plantain, the 
pistils are a day or two in advance of the stamens, 
and the insects are a means of affecting a cross-fertiliza- 
tion. 
The common Dandelion ( Taraxicum dens-leonis Desfon- 
taines) is a good example of the other kind of dichogamy, 
in which the anthers discharge the pollen before the stig- 
mas are ready to receive it. This belongs to a very large 
family called Compositæ, which contains from one-eighth 
to one-tenth of all the flowering plants in this part of the 
world. Each yellow head in the Dandelion is a cluster 
of small flowers packed closely together, and not one 
large compound flower as the name implies, which was 
given by the early botanists. Each pistil bears two long 
slender stigmas surrounded by the anthers which are 
united by their edges, forming a tube (syngenesious). 
The stigmas are covered on the outside with small hairs, 
having their tips pointing upwards, like the beards on a 
head of barley. 
