HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



37 



resources and contrivances of our favourites in the 

 happiest light. 



There is an old proverb that speaks of "a good 

 contriver being better than an early riser," express- 

 ing in a homely way the fact that fertility of 

 resource and good management are sometimes more 

 successful than industry not wisely directed. Be 

 this as it may, it is both interesting and instructive to 

 see how flowers have made the most of the means at 



Fig. 29. — Coronilla varia. 



Fig. 32. — Harebell. 



F 35- — Parnassia. 



th eir disposal, and in a variety of ways, according to 

 their lights, have modified existing parts to allow 

 nectar to be secreted or accumulated. Here a petal 

 has been chosen to form a cup to hold it, there a 

 stamen bears a flask of honey on its side, now a sepal 

 is hollowed into a tiny bowl, or carved into a veritable 

 horn of plenty brimming with sweets, and now the 

 amber drops cover the disk like dew, or are even 

 hidden away in little jars with lids to them to keep 



out the greedy ants ! Just, however, as the flowers 

 of a natural order or genus have certain charac- 

 teristics in common, so their different species will 

 usually secrete their honey more or less on the same 

 lines, though with interesting individual differences. 

 Our first natural order Ranunculaceje seems to be an 

 epitome of the possible adaptations of both sepals 

 and petals to serve the purpose of secreting or storing 

 honey. All the petals in Hellebore, and two each 



Th 



Fig. yi.—Nemopliila insignis. 



F'g- 34.— Radish. 



Fig. 36.— Mignonette. 



in Delphinium and Aconitum are transformed almost 

 beyond recognition ; and in the buttercup a little 

 scale has been added to cover the honey-pit, a fore- 

 shadowing of the petaline nectary with a lid in 

 Nigeria. In Delphinium the coherent sepals of the 

 spur share with the two dorsal spurred petals the 

 work of distilling and forming a receptacle for the 

 nectar, and in Caltha the disk or fleshy base of the 

 ovary secretes the honey. No doubt exotic species 



