196 THE YOUNG 



The anthers themselves are very curious 

 for the motility which they manifest. 

 They are large egg-shaped, of a light 

 buff colour, frequently speckled with 

 minute purple spots, which makes them 

 resemble minature birds' eggs. The 

 two lobes are quite distinct, being only 

 slightly coherent at the base, where 

 they are attached to the filament, at 

 first they stand transverse to the fila- 

 ment, each pair of anthers looking 

 like four little sacks lying across the 

 corolla with their bases just touching. 

 When mature, the upper lobe of each 

 anther rises upwards and the lower 

 bends downwards, till they become on 

 a line with the filament, when they 

 open by a longitudinal slit and dis- 

 charge their pollen. At this stage, the 

 style is at the level of the lower pair 

 of anthers, it is, however, inmature and 

 growing, by the time the pollen of the 

 upper pair of anthers is fully dispersed, 

 it has lengthened to their level, and 

 then the lower pair of anthers pass 

 through exactly the same phases and 

 eject their pollen. By the time this 

 is fully accomplished the style, which 

 has now overtopped the stamens, has 

 attained maturity and arrived at the 

 receptive stage, when it can be fertilised 

 by pollen. Hitherto its tip has had a 

 sharp, flattened, triangular appearance, 

 with faint indications of a line of 

 division in its broadest diameter, now, 

 however, its lips unlock and stand 

 widely apart, showing a very evident 



NATURALIST. 



notch which is the stigmatic surface. 

 The corolla hangs for some time after its 

 pollen is shed ; but by and bye it drops 

 off, carrying, of course, the stamens with 

 it ; but the style remains persistent, 

 only withering as the fruit matures, 

 and it seems to retain its receptivity 

 for some time after it is denuded of its 

 corolla, so that wandering bees, having 

 their bodies dusted with pollen, may 

 knock against them and fully effect 

 fertilisation if insufficiently performed 

 previously. Y arious and manifold are 

 the adaptions of means to ends in this 

 particular flower. One notable fact is 

 that before and during blossoming the 

 little flower stalks bend downwards, so 

 that the bell- like blossoms droop so 

 gracefully, thus effectually shielding 

 the essential organs from rain, whilst 

 after fertilization they again rise up- 

 wards, bearing erect the sharp-pointed 

 conical capsules. These are two-celled, 

 containing an immense number of 

 small seeds ; these again are borne on 

 two thickened and enlarged axile pla- 

 centas, which gives the ovary a curious 

 dumb-bell appearance in cross-section. 

 When mature, the capsule opens from 

 I the apex by two longitudinal slits 

 along the division formed by the union 

 of the two carpels, and thus allow the 

 seeds to fall out. Another feature in 

 the foxglove is the absence of the fifth 

 stamen, which the symmetry of the 

 flower demands should be present. 

 The reason for its disappearance is 



