THE YOUNG 



NATURALIST 



195 



and developed of our indigenous 

 flora, and there are evidences to show 

 it must have passed through many 

 stages before it reached its present 

 state. The calyx still retains the most 

 primitive form, showing the ancestral 

 type from which the foxglove has 

 descended. It is composed of five 

 sepals, inferior, green, distinct, nearly 

 regular in shape, the two lower 

 largest, the two side ones inter- 

 mediate, and the upper one the 

 smallest of the whorl ; it is persistent, 

 remaining till the fruit is mature. The 

 corolla, although now united into a 

 tube, shows the five original petals in 

 the divisions of the lip, this is very 

 marked in the unopened blossoms, 

 where the lower lip is seen curled up 

 and closing the entrance to the tube 

 like a door. In shape the corolla is 

 unique, being an oblique tube, bearing 

 a resemblance to a glove finger, hence 

 its common name, the upper side is 

 straight whilst the lower is curved, 

 with the edges of the mouth slightly 

 reiexed. The base is very much con- 

 tracted, and shows four prominent 

 thickened ridges whence spring the 

 filaments of the stamens, the interior 

 is bearded with a forest of long hairs. 

 The general colour of the corolla is a 

 rich reddish purple deepest on the out- 

 side, but what we may call the floor 

 of this gorgeous insect palace, is tes- 

 selated in an infinite variety of devices. 

 The whole lower half of the corolla 

 on the inside is dappled and freckled 



with a multitude of irregular deep 

 purple spots on a white ground, having 

 the appearance as if some dark cor- 

 rosive substance had been sprinkled 

 on the corolla, which had had the 

 effect of eating away the original col- 

 our in a concentric ring, leaving it of 

 a washed out whiteness. Their diver- 

 sity of arrangement is endless, as no 

 two blossoms are ever found speckled 

 exactly alike, but as for the reason of 

 their occurrence it is now universally 

 admitted that all these markings upon 

 the corollas of flowers are either as 

 attractions or guides to insect visitors. 

 In this case they are also aided by the 

 arrangement of the stamens, which are 

 four, placed in two pairs, one of which 

 overtop the other. Originating at 

 equal distances in the circumference 

 of the lower, constricted portion of the 

 corolla they form three well-defined 

 nectaries, or honey pores, the fourth 

 space being filled by the immature 

 ovary and base of the style. Where 

 the corolla begins to widen the anter- 

 ior pair makes an abrupt bend back- 

 wards and towards the other pair, they 

 then lie side by side closely pressed 

 against the upper part of the corolla, 

 so as to leave the internal space vacant. 

 Eor the same reason the style curves 

 sharply at its base, and then lies snugly 

 ensconced between the two pairs of 

 stamens, in its first stage it reaches to 

 the level of the lower pair of anthers, 

 which stand about one quarter of its 

 length from the mouth of the corolla. 



