34 
HOW PLANTS EMPLOY INSECTS TO WORK FOR THEM, 
Take notice that these anthers do not open by trap-doors, like those of Barberry, 
nor by long slits as in most flowers. As in most of the Heath Family (to which 
Kalmia belongs), they consist of a pair of sacs, side by side, wdiich open by a 
round hole at the top (see Fig. 29). So, when the bowed filament is set free and 
flies forward, the grains of pollen in the anther are projected, like shot from a 
child’s pea-shooter. A bit of whalebone, to the end of which two pieces of quill 
filled with small shot are made fast, is not a bad representation of one of these 
stamens. This really must be a contrivance for discharging pollen at some object. 
If the stigma around w T hich the stamens are marshalled be that object, the target 
is a small one, yet some one or more of the ten shots might hit the mark. But 
the discharges can hardly ever take place at all without the aid of an insect. 
Bees are the insects thus far observed to frequent these flowers ; and it is inter- 
esting to watch the operations of a bumble-bee upon them. The bee, remaining 
on the wing, circles for a moment over each flower, thrusting his proboscis all 
round the ovary at the bottom ; in doing this it jostles and lets off the springs, 
and receives upon the under side of its body and its legs successive charges of 
pollen. Flying to another blossom, it brings its pollen-dusted body against the 
stigma, and, commonly revolving on it as if on a pivot while it sucks the nectar 
in the bottom of the flower-cup, liberates the ten bowed stamens, and receives 
fresh charges of pollen from that flower while fertilizing it with the pollen of the 
preceding one. This account is founded on the observations of Professor Beal, of 
Michigan, who also states that when a cluster of blossoms is covered with fine 
gauze, no stamen gets liberated of itself while fit for action, and no seed sets. 
Figs. 26 - 29. Flower of American Laurel , Kalmia latifolia. 26. Flower-bud divided lengthwise. 27. 
Open flower. 28. Section of same, lengthwise. 29. A stamen enlarged, discharging pollen from 
the two holes at the top. 
