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Simply by crawling over the spikes, of which the terminal one
usually matures first, they fertilize the little flowers. The
pollen thrust far out of each tube in the early stage of bloom,
has usually all been brushed off on the underside of bees, wasps,
butterflies, flies, and beetles before the stigma matures;
nevertheless, when it becomes susceptible, the anthers spread
apart to keep out of its way lest any leftover pollen should
touch it.
"The leaves of the herbage at our feet," says Ruskin, "take all
kinds of strange shapes, as if to invite us to examine them.
Star-shaped. heart-shaped, spear-shaped, arrow-shaped, fretted,
fringed, cleft, furrowed, serrated, in whorls, in tufts, in
wreaths, in spires, endlessly expressive, deceptive, fantastic,
never the same from footstalks to blossom, they seem perpetually
to tempt our watchfulness, and take delight in outstripping our
wonder." Doubtless light is the factor with the greatest effect
in determining the position of the leaves on the stem, if not
their shape.


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