A FLOWER WITH THREE WELCOMES.
A. First Day's Welcome—Stigma at the Doorway.
A¹. First Day—Sectional View.
B. Second Day's Welcome.—Stigma bent downward beneath two withered Stamens at Doorway.
B¹. Second Day—Sectional View.
C. Third Day's Welcome.—Four Stamens at Doorway.
D. Fourth Day.—Fall of Blossom. Its Mission fulfilled.
E. Fifth Day.—Pod Enlarging.
The flower bud usually opens in the morning, and shows a face as at A, which must be fully understood by looking at the side section shown at A¹.
The anthers and pollen are not yet ripe, but the stigma is ready, and now guards the doorway. To-morrow morning we shall see a new condition of things at that doorway, as seen at B and B¹. The stigma has now bent down out of the way, while two anthers have unfolded on their stalks and now shed their pollen at the threshold. The third morning, or perhaps even sooner, the other pair come forward, and we see the opening of the blossom as at C. Blossoms in all these three conditions are to be found on this cluster.
Fig. 1.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 3.
A small wasp is now seen hovering about the flowers, and we must now turn our attention to him as seen in Figs. 1, 2, and 3. The insect alights, we will assume, on a blossom of the second day (Fig. 1), clinging with all his feet, and thrusting his tongue into the heads of nectar shown at A¹ and B¹. He now brings his breast or thorax, or perhaps the under side of his head, against the pollen, and is thoroughly dusted with it. Leaving the blossom, we see him in flight, as at Fig. 2, and very soon he is seen to come to a freshly opened flower, which he sips as before. The pollen is thus pushed against the projecting stigma, as shown at Fig. 3, and thus, one by one, the flowers are cross-fertilized.
The stigma, after receiving pollen, immediately bends downward and backward, as shown in B¹, to give place to the ripening anthers, and shortly after the last pair of them have shed their pollen, the blossom, having then fulfilled its functions, falls off, as shown at D. This may be on the afternoon of the third day, or not until the fourth. If not visited by insects it may chance to remain the longer time; but more than one tiny wasp gets his head into such a blossom, and is surprised with a tumble, his weight pulling the blossom from its attachment.
The result of that pollen upon the stigma is quickly seen in the growing ovary or pod, which enlarges rapidly on the few succeeding days, as in E.
Many species of hornets and wasps, large and small, are to be seen about the figwort blooms, occasionally bees, frequently bumblebees, which usually carry away the pollen on the under side of their heads.
Who shall any longer refer to the figwort as an "uninteresting weed"?
SINGULAR METHOD OF BRANCHING AND FLOWERING.