THE POLLINATION OF THE PRIMROSE 105 
witli a blunt object pushed against the anthers, or better still a 
small paint-brush, suffices to show that the anthers are readily 
pushed aside, and some pollen, at all events, is readily dusted and 
carried away. The introrse dehiscence of the anthers is without 
doubt a wise provision to prevent the pollen from being injured 
by drops of water, which after a shower collect at the mouth of 
the flower tube. But the short filament of the stamens is mobile 
and allows the visiting insect to push the stamens apart. Even 
without any pressure some pollen is found at the tip of the little 
tube formed by the anthers. Secondly, Mr. Bell considered that 
even if these insects did visit the flowers they would not efliect a 
cross-pollination, as they would search all the flowers of one plant 
before passing on to another. That, however, was not my 
e.xperience; I found that they rarely visited even two flowers on 
the same plant, but usually flitted rapidly from plant to plant, and 
thus had ample opportunity for cross-pollination. 
But Mr. Bell probably considered the most damaging fact to be 
the comparatively small number of these insects, contrasted witli 
the hundreds of primroses which I observed. As Mr. Bell says, 
I limited my observations to two large patches of primroses. 
Within the hour and a half which I usually spent among the 
primroses, I noted on the average only one Anthophora and two 
Bombylii. In considering these numbers, however, we must also 
take account of the conditions under which the observations were 
made. The weather was by no means favourable to insect life. 
On most days very few insects were flying owing to the cold 
winds, which, as I stated in my article, prevailed during the time 
1 was able to watch the primroses. Mr. Bell cited the absence 
of insects which I noted on the large primrose-covered areas at 
the foot of Caer Caradoc, but I attributed the absence solely to 
the strong north-westerly winds, for at the same time the shel- 
tered areas selected by me were visited by Bombylii and Antho- 
phora, though of course not in very large numbers. I believe that 
had I been able to stay longer in the district, until the conditions 
had become more favourable to insect life, I should have found 
the two genera mentioned far more frequent visitors of the prim- 
rose. Unfortunately, I had to return to Manchester, and this 
spring have been more unfortunate still, as with an earlier Easter 
vacation and a later season I had still less opportunity of seeing 
the primroses at their best. 
I trust that other readers of Nature Notes may have been 
more fortunately situated, and that they will record their obser- 
vations. Only on three mornings early in April had I the 
opportunity of closely examining primrose plants. The areas 
chosen were fairly sheltered banks in North Staffordshire, and on 
two of them I was able to note Bombylii settling and steadily 
sucking honey from the flowers, as I had seen them doing at 
Church Stretton. The mornings were cold, and on one of them 
I saw no other insect flying except the two Bombylii. I feel sure 
that, given better conditions, the number of insects visiting the 
primroses would be greatly increased. 
