BEES AS FERTILISERS. 283 



(larkspur) intelligible, although this belongs to a dis- 

 tinct order — the Ranunculaceae. Here, as in the tropae- 

 olum, the five sepals forming the calyx are brightly 

 coloured, while the upper one is produced into a long 

 spur ; but, in this case, the two upper petals are con- 

 tinued backwards into the spur, and secrete nectar. 



The narrow mouth of the flower is surrounded on 

 all sides by the petals, but these are so shaped, that 

 the tube they form has an opening beneath, just 

 behind the entrance. The tongue of the bee, in 

 stretching towards the nectary, passes, with the head 

 or thorax, over this opening, into which the anthers, 

 as they commence to shed pollen, rise, two or three 

 together, from their position beneath, and so effectu- 

 ally powder the insect on the under side. The anthers 

 drop again when their fertilising dust is exhausted, to 

 be replaced by others until the last, when the 

 pistil becomes receptive, and occupies the spot from 

 which the male organs have retired, thus securing, 

 as before, cross-fertilisation by pollen from a younger 

 blossom. To return to our pelargonium (Plate VIII.). 

 We find this also proterandrous. The anthers (a, F) 

 split, and shed their pollen, while the style as yet 

 presents no stigmatic faces, for the former is now like 

 a simple rod ; but, when the pollen has wholly or 

 partly disappeared, the upper end of the style divides 

 by longitudinal cleavages, and rolls back into view 

 the five stigmatic, papillose surfaces which had pre- 

 viously been mutually protected from possible contact 

 with pollen. An inspection of a few pelargoniums 

 in a o-reenhouse will make these several conditions 

 absolutely clear. 



