431 MR. T. A. DYMES ON THE 
that time to be found upon some of the graves Шеге. I then collected a few 
of the seed-masses, but, although wondering mildly what their significance 
inight be, it was not until the year 1904 that my curiosity was aroused anent 
their dispersal. 
In that year the plant fruited in my garden at West Drayton, and I 
noticed the masses lying upon the ground, and was again much struck 
г 
by the larva-like appearance. 
It was not possible for me to make any experiments then, and my only 
note was to the effect that snails break up the mass by devouring the strip, 
and that I suspected that robins mistook it for a larva and perhaps dropped 
it some distance away on discovering the deception, This possibility was 
suggested to me by my finding the broken masses about a yard away from 
the parent, and by my having disturbed robins in the early morning about 
the plants themselves. 
Г have made а few isolated observations since; but I have had the 
misfortune to lose the whole of my botanical notes for this and some previous 
years, and it is not safe to quote any thing more definite from memor у, nor is 
it, fortunately, necessary to trust thereto now. 
In our own country—or, at any rate, in West Drayton—the species, as 
a rule, ripens but little seed: in 1913 and 1914, for example, it set 
practically none at all; but this year (1915), owing probably to less 
unfavourable conditions during the pollination-period, it produced a fair 
crop, although a great many of the flowers failed altogether, while many 
others matured only one or two instead of the usual three follicles, and 
a good proportion of these were by no means up to the average in size or 
seed-contents. 
However, I saw my chance at last, and I decided to make the most of it. 
A word may be said here about the pollination, as illustrating the 
difficulties which beset the species in this country and to which I shall 
have occasion to refer at the close of this paper. 
The plant flowers with me for the most part in January and February, 
sometimes in December, and occasionally it makes a start quite early i 
November; it continues to produce blossoms for many weeks or even 
months, and it secretes plenty of honey in the well-known “jars” It 
is a curious fact that, just as it sheds the seed-contents of each follicle 
in a single mass, so with its pollen the contents of each loculus form 
one coherent lump. Normally, no doubt, these would be carried off hy 
the insect visitors (Apis and Bombus spp.), but in the horrible weather 
that we often experience in the early part of the year such visitors are 
conspicuous by their absence, and the pollen-masses fall out of the anther 
and may be seen in large numbers as small yellowish lumps upon the leaves 
of the parent plant. The species is markedly proterogynous, but with the 
usual overlap ; and I fear that with me it has, in most se: asons, to depend for 
