THE GLOBE-FLOWER— continued. 
The cauline leaves are few and are smaller and sessile, but otherwise similar. The 
pale yellow flowers are an inch or an inch and a half in diameter and are slightly 
scented. The orbicular, concave sepals nearly conceal the petals and, as they never 
open out to any great extent, the stamens and carpels are protected by them. In wet 
weather the flower closes still more, and at no time are insect-visitors very numerous. 
As the flower is homogamous or synacmic^ i.e. the stamens and stigmas maturing 
simultaneously, it is probably very frequently self-pollinated. 
The follicles are transversely wrinkled and have a keel, and a beak-like apex ; 
and the three-sided seeds are smooth, black, and polished, but have rows of fine dots 
along their tough outer coats. The smoothness of such seeds, perhaps, facilitates 
their escape from the shrivelling ripe follicles ; whilst the tough, polished testa 
prevents water from resting on them, and so protects them alike from rotting or from 
too early germination. The plant flowers in June, July, and August, so that its fruit 
ripens in early autumn ; but germination does not usually occur until the spring. 
Both this species and several of its congeners, such as T. asiaticus Linne and 
T. caucasicus Stevens, are cultivated as hardy herbaceous plants for the sake of their 
flowers. Much as they resemble the genus Ranunculus^ they, like the Marsh 
Marigolds, are at once distinguished by their many-seeded carpels, which, as 
we have seen, form dehiscent follicles instead of indehiscent achenes. 
