BEES AS FERTILISERS. 301 



native perennials, with its long, tapering spikes of crim- 

 son and purple, borne on stems 3ft. or 4ft. high, and 

 decorating gaily the banks of the stream, where it holds 

 its own amongst the sedges, rushes, and sallows. 

 Although a water lover, it may be naturalised in the 

 garden ; and I know of no plant likely to afford so 

 much pleasure to the scientific bee-keeper. It has, 

 in all its forms, twelve anthers, arranged in two rows 

 of six, and a centrally placed pistil. But the lengths 

 of the style and filaments in no two forms agree ; when 

 the style is short, the stamens are medium and long ; 

 when the style is medium, the stamens are short and 

 long; and when the style is long, the stamens are short 

 and medium. The long pistil is fertilised by the long 

 stamens of the other two forms, the medium by the 

 medium, and the short by the short ; for, as bees pass 

 from plant to plant (each plant bearing only one form 

 of flower), the pollen finds its proper resting-place by 

 the position given to it by the anther whence it 

 came, for the long, medium, and short stamens touch 

 the bee on different parts of the body, which are 

 subsequently applied to the long, medium, and short- 

 styled stigma respectively. The wonders of this 

 interfitting are too many for description. Even the 

 pollens are truly diverse, and of three kinds, while 

 the filaments are distinct, the long being deeply red, 

 the medium and short white. The anther cells of the 

 long filaments are nearly black, and the pollen grains 

 a brilliant emerald green, while the pollen of the short 

 and medium anthers is yellow. The green pollen 

 grain is large, the yellow pollen of the medium anther 

 smaller, and that of the short anther less again, seem- 



