296 BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 



end, instead of the side, of the cell, so that the style 

 itself stops the orifices ; upon the backs of the inner 

 anthers the outer row is pressed, and thus a ring of 

 twenty appendages (ap, A, Fig. 60) is set round the 

 centre of the flower. The stigma is receptive before the 

 anthers are ripe. Unless insects quickly visit the 

 blossom, the outer anthers drop back, as at a, A ; but 

 all the pollen does not at once run out, for the anther 

 is lobed within, and is delicately poised at the back, 

 by a very slender termination to the filament. The 

 pollen which falls is here held by the inner hairs of the 

 corolla (shown in the Figure), and may be swept up by 

 bees' tongues. The second set of anthers (a), at a 

 later period, fall back, and sprinkle their pollen as 

 the others. The suggestion seems to be, that, if 

 bees do not come, then smaller insects, walking up 

 the corolla inside, may get coated, and so fertilise 

 other blossoms (for we must remember that these 

 flowers are proterandrous) by walking down their 

 styles. For it is singular that, notwithstanding the 

 large mouths of the corolla, no sticky hairs occur ; 

 but their office is, in this case, performed by the 

 filaments (/), which are enormously thickened, and 

 covered with thin, cottony hairs, so that the ten so 

 fill the upper part of the bell, that very small insects 

 could not force their way through them to get the 

 nectar. 



It is in this useful order that we find also the 

 cranberry, bilberry, and whortleberry, all the blos- 

 soms of which could be well made out by applying 

 the above explanations as an examination might 

 warrant. 



