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210
The Fairy-Land of Science
·
Arabella B. Buckley
149
But
why
should
the
primroses
have
such
golden
crowns?
plain
green
ones
would
protect
the
seed
quite
as
well.
Ah!
now
we
come
to
a
secret
well
worth
knowing.
Look
at
the
two
primrose
flowers,
1
and
2,
Fig.
43,
p.
163,
and
tell
me
how
you
think
the
dust
gets
on
to
the
top
of
the
sticky
knob
or
stigma.
No.
2
seems
easy
enough
to
explain,
for
it
looks
as
if
the
pollen
could
fall
down
easily
from
the
stamens
on
to
the
knob,
but
it
cannot
fall
up,
as
it
would
have
to
do
in
No.
1.
Now
the
curious
truth
is,
as
Mr.
Darwin
has
shown,
that
neither
of
these
flowers
can
get
the
dust
easily
for
themselves,
but
of
the
two
No.
1
has
the
least
difficulty.
Look
at
a
withered
primrose,
and
see
how
it
holds
its
head
down,
and
after
a
little
while
the
yellow
crown
falls
off.
It
is
just
about
as
it
is
falling
that
the
anthers
or
bags
of
stamens
burst
open,
and
then,
in
No.
1
(Fig.
44),
they
are
dragged
over
the
knob
and
some
of
the
grains
stick
there.
But
in
the
other
form
of
primrose,
No.
2,
when
the
flower
falls
off,
the
stamens
do
not
come
near
the
knob,
so
it
has
no
chance
of
getting
any
pollen;
and
while
the
primrose
is
upright
the
tube
is
so
narrow
that
the
dust
does
not
easily
fall.
But,
as
I
have
said,
neither
kind
gets
it
very
easily,
nor
is
it
good
for
them
if
they
do.
The
seeds
are
much
stronger
and
better
if
the
dust
or
pollen
of
one
flower
is
carried
away
and
left
on
the
knob
or
stigma
of
another
flower;
and
the
only
way
this
can
be
done
is
by
insects
flying
from
one
flower
to
another
and
carrying
the
dust
on
their
legs
and
bodies.
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