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Its drooping, fragrant, bell-shaped white flowers and long slender pods will help to recall it. But its method of capture is somewhat similar to the milkweed. The anthers are divided by a V-shaped cavity, into which the insect's tongue is guided as it is withdrawn from the flower, and into which it often becomes so tightly wedged as to render escape impossible.
They lack the high stigma placed above the anthers, which in the lamarckiana, by the vigorous growth of the style, extends the calyx and renders the flower bud thinner and more slender. Those of the brevistylis are therefore broader and more swollen. It is quite easy to distinguish the individuals by this striking character alone, although it differs from the parent in other particulars.
In many other cases, far from there being any aids for self-fertilisation, there are special contrivances, as I could show from the writings of C. C. Sprengel and from my own observations, which effectually prevent the stigma receiving pollen from its own flower: for instance, in Lobelia fulgens, there is a really beautiful and elaborate contrivance by which every one of the infinitely numerous pollen-granules are swept out of the conjoined anthers of each flower, before the stigma of that individual flower is ready to receive them; and as this flower is never visited, at least in my garden, by insects, it never sets a seed, though by placing pollen from one flower on the stigma of another, I raised plenty of seedlings; and whilst another species of Lobelia growing close by, which is visited by bees, seeds freely.
The racemes of purple bells held up by the foxglove are methodically visited by it, commencing at the bottom flower, and ascending step by step to the highest. The four stamens and the pistil of the foxglove are laid closely against the upper side of the flower. First a stamen on one side opens its anthers and exposes its pollen. The humble-bee, as it bustles in and out, brushes this off.
But the evening-primroses open their anthers in the morning, fertilize themselves during the day, and only display their beautiful flowers in the evening, after the pollination has been accomplished. They then allure evening moths, such as Agrotis and Plusia, by their bright color, their sweet honeysmell and their nectar.
In numerous other cases, far from self-fertilisation being favoured, there are special contrivances which effectually prevent the stigma receiving pollen from its own flower, as I could show from the works of Sprengel and others, as well as from my own observations: for instance, in Lobelia fulgens, there is a really beautiful and elaborate contrivance by which all the infinitely numerous pollen-granules are swept out of the conjoined anthers of each flower, before the stigma of that individual flower is ready to receive them; and as this flower is never visited, at least in my garden, by insects, it never sets a seed, though by placing pollen from one flower on the stigma of another, I raise plenty of seedlings.
The flowers are developed on the ends of the branches, and are 3 in. long and wide, the sepals spreading and recurved, as in a Paris daisy, their colour being bright rose purple. The anthers form a corona-like ring, inclosing the upright, rayed stigma. A native of Mexico; flowers in May and June.
The tree has a rusty, scaly bark and broad, oval leaves, pointed at the tip and finely toothed. The flower clusters are large and, though white, they appear yellowish from the many yellow anthers at the centre. When entirely ripe the fruit is a dark blue or black and is covered with a bloom; before ripening it is crimson. The berry grows in clusters on slender red stems.
The child, knowing about the fertilization of flowers, can easily be led to see that the fish ova, like the flower ovules, cannot develop without pollen. The anthers containing the pollen are found in the male fish, and look like the ovaries, only they are not so large and their contents are not so firm. They seem filled with a formless substance instead of with little globular eggs.
Flowers terminal, springing from the young spine tufts, each 4 in. across, with two rows of petals arranged regularly in the form of a cup; colour deep rose, paler on the inside of the cup; stamens very numerous, with white filaments and yellow anthers. The flowers expand at sunrise and close again in the evening, each one lasting about a week; they are very agreeably scented.
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