Nevertheless, many of the flowers on the plants which I had protected
produced capsules, notwithstanding that their petals and pistils still
retained their original position; and I found to my surprise that these
capsules contained more seeds than those from flowers, the petals of
which had been artificially separated and allowed to spring apart. Thus,
nine capsules produced by undisturbed flowers contained fifty-three
seeds; whilst nine capsules from flowers, the petals of which had been
artificially separated, contained only thirty-two seeds. But we should
remember that if bees had been permitted to visit these flowers, they
would have visited them at the best time for fertilisation. The flowers,
the petals of which had been artificially separated, set their capsules
before those which were left undisturbed under the net. To show with
what certainty the flowers are visited by bees, I may add that on one
occasion all the flowers on some unprotected plants were examined, and
every single one had its petals separated; and, on a second occasion,
forty-one out of forty-three flowers were in this state. Hildebrand
states (Pring. Jahr. f. wiss. Botanik, B. 7 page 450) that the mechanism
of the parts in this species is nearly the same as in C. ochroleuca,
which he has fully described.
Hypecoum grandiflorum (Fumariaceae).--Highly self-sterile (Hildebrand,
ibid.).
Kalmia latifolia (Ericaceae).
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