THE TUFTED VETCH— continued. 
The flowers are borne in axillary racemes on peduncles longer than the leaves, 
from ten to thirty of the pendulous little pea-shaped blossoms being crowded 
together in each raceme. They hang by short pedicels in a one-sided cluster, each 
being about half an inch long, pink at first, becoming blue to violet later. The 
mechanism of their pollination is most elaborate. The two lateral or “ wing ” 
petals are tightly interlocked with the two united anterior ones which are termed 
the “keel,” protuberances on the former fitting into hollows in the latter; so that, 
when the flower is visited by a bee in search, of nectar, wings and keel are depressed 
together by the insect’s weight. Of the ten stamens, nine are united below the ovary 
in a tube, from the end of which their filaments sweep slightly upward, instead of 
bending abruptly, as in the allied Vetchlings and Everlasting Peas. Nectar is 
excreted by the inside of this staminal tube and accumulates round the base of the 
ovary. To render it accessible, the tenth or uppermost stamen is free from the rest, 
and on either side of its base are two openings into either of which the bee inserts 
its tongue. The anthers are ripe and discharge their pollen into the apex of the 
keel-cavity before the flowers open ; and the slender style is furnished with a brush 
of hairs all round its upper portion. When wings and keel are depressed by the 
weight of the visiting bee, the stigma is first extruded from the keel and will receive 
any pollen brought on the bee’s body from another flower, and then the pollen is 
brushed out by the tuft of hairs. It is stated that pollen will not germinate upon 
a stigma until the delicate surface of the latter has been scratched by the bee. So 
elastic are the parts that, as the bee flies off, they resume their former position, and 
in so doing may secure self-pollination if crossing has not been effected. 
Another interesting mechanism exhibited by this species is that by which the 
numerous small globose black seeds are dispersed from the ripe pods. The pod is 
smooth, straight, and about an inch long, terminating in the persistent style ; but it 
has in both its sides some obliquely-disposed woody cells, and the unequal 
contraction of these in drying, as compared to that of the adjacent tissue, causes each 
half of the pod to coil violently into a spiral, thus throwing the contained seeds to 
some distance as the two valves split apart. 
The plant is in flower from June to August ; and if it is wished to cultivate 
it for the wild garden, the rhizome may be divided in early autumn or In spring, or 
the seed may be collected and sown in the open border either in spring or autumn. 
The plant will, of course, require some support over which it may clamber. 
