SEED-MASS ЕТС. OF HELLEBORUS FŒTIDUS. 435 
pollination upon purely fortuitous geitonogamy аз much as, or more than, 
upon the insects. It is only occasionally that the conditions offer any 
reasonable prospect of the normal amount of crossing ; while self-pollination 
seems to be out of the question altogether, except as the rarest of accidents. 
Things are probably different on the Continent, where, aecording to 
Sernander, the fruiting period is from the end of July until the beginning 
of September, whereas with me it began on June 30th and was all over by 
July 18th. Sernander does not mention the flowering dates, but a delay of 
a month or six weeks at the commencement of the year would make a 
considerable difference in the right direction. 
But to return to the dispersal. Sernander considered the plant to be 
myrmecochorous, and in his Monograph, the value of which has been pointed 
out by Prof. Weiss, he placed it under his Viola odorata type ; both of these 
decisions are, I think, open to question, though we need concern ourselves 
only with the claim to myrmecochory, for if that cannot be substantiated 
the other ceases to be of interest. 
In addition to my note on the snails and the robins, the elaiosome led 
me to suspect that the ants play some part in the dispersal, and I was 
accordingly not surprised at the results obtained by Sernander: what did 
surprise me was that in his valuable Monograph he makes по reference 
to the possible part played by birds and more especially by molluscs. 
[ determined, therefore, to investigate these two points, so far as my 
material would allow, and also to confirm Ludwig's claim that the ants 
break up the mass by nibbling away at the strip. What follows is an 
account of the little that I was able to do. 
I will first take the agents-—Molluses, Birds, and Ants—-in that order, 
and then discuss the larval mimicry and the elaim to myrmecochory. 
Section I. MOLLUSCS. 
The first seed-mass was dropped on June 30th, and on July 3rd, at Û P.M., 
Г cleared the ground in front of the plants of all loose seeds and masses for a 
space of two square feet. 
There were three whole masses with the strip still white (Nos. 1, 2, & 3, 
sce Tables), and I shook the plant so as to dislodge any that would be likely 
to drop during the night. Nine fell to the ground (Nos. 4-12), and I 
noticed that none of them were broken by the tumble, which may have been 
as much as 25 inches, the height from the ground of the topmost follicles. 
With one exception (see Table I., No. 15), the largest masses that came 
under my notice (see РІ. 36. fig. 1) contained 14 seeds and measured, in the 
longest diameter, 8 of an inch, a fair average being 11 seeds and a short 
1 inch (see Table Т.). The fate of №. 15 was to be badly mutilated by the 
9 
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snails (see Table VIIL). 
