

98 FLO WERING PLANTS 
is so abundant that this characteristic gives its name to the 
| genus—Polycarpon, 1.€., many carpels. 
Se With regard to the distribution of the Order, it 
Distribution. . 
is most abundant in the northern temperate zone ; 
a few species are found in the arctic regions, and still fewer in 
the tropics. Polycarpon is restricted to the Channel Islands, 
Cornwall, Devon, and Dorset, and flowers in June and July. 
The Order is a large one, containing about 1,100 species. 
This may be studied in the Ragged Robin 
| (Lychnis floscuculi). This plant is visited by bees, 
moths, butterflies, and flies with very long tongues, for, owing 
to the fact that the calyx is tubular, the honey is less exposed 
than in the Stellaria (“Elementary Botany,” p. 56), so that 
only small insects which can creep into the tube, or insects 
with long probosces, can get the honey. The stamens ripen 
before the gynecium, the outer ones first, then the inner. 
When these last have withered the 5 styles grow up exposing 
their inner surfaces, which, if insect-visits occur, become 
dusted with pollen from other flowers. This species of 
Lychnis occupies an intermediate position between those 
caryophyllaceous flowers which have the honey exposed as in 
Stellaria, and those in which it is even more concealed than it 
is in Lychnis. Some of the Caryophyllacee—e.g., the Pinks 
and Soapworts—are visited only by butterflies and moths 
(Lepidoptera). Those visited by the Lepidoptera that fly in 
the day usually have bright colours, whilst those that attract 
the nocturnal Lepidoptera do so by their strong scent and their 
white flowers which open in the evening, as Lychnis vespertina. 
Pollination. 
MALVACE. 
Common MAtiow (Malva sylvestris). 
A biennial herb, with branched stems, clothed 
with stiff hairs. The leaves have long stalks, they are stipulate, 
round, consisting of 5 or 7 lobes. 
Inflorescence : solitary or consisting of compound cymes. 
Type. 
Plower. : 
bud. Beneath the calyx are 3 bracts, not joined 
together and forming an epicalyx. 
Calyx: sepals 5, joined, inferior, twisted in the — ; 
