56 MR. J. P. M. WEALE ON THE FERTILIZATION OF 
expanded where the masses join. The masses bend outwards, 
are elongated and considerably curved. Their last third is pel- 
lucid and much attenuated. It is on this pellucid outer margin 
that the rupture and protrusion of the pollen-tubes take place. 
The ale of the anthers project but little, and extend low down 
in the flower. They are widely open at the base, and then sud- 
denly contract, so as to form a sort of sharp notch. The whole 
gynostege is closely enveloped by the folioles and corolla. On 
withdrawing the pollen-masses with a pin, the movement, which 
is very curious, can be easily seen. On lifting up the gland a 
short distance, it bends inwards towards the centre of the stigma, 
and the arms outwards and away from it. On withdrawing it 
entirely, the long arms bend out completely, and hang loosely 
from the small gland. The pollen-masses somewhat resemble the 
long curved-up hoofs which sheep acquire when feeding on marshy 
soft ground. The disruption of the pollinia generally takes 
place where the arms are joined to the gland, and not at the 
junction of the pollen-masses to the arms, as is usually the case. 
I have, on one occasion, seen them disrupted in this place. 
I think it not improbable that the long thin dangling arms of 
the pollen-masses may render the fertilization of this flower 
somewhat diffieult, and that the hooked folioles delay an insect 
by the long upcurved pollinia being caught in them, in which 
case it would push downwards in order to extricate itself, and 
the end of the pollen-mass would almost certainly be caught in 
the sharply notched fissure of the anther, and become detached. 
The hooked portion of the foliole is widely eurved, and thus the 
pollen-mass would be prevented from becoming detached as it 
does in the bootjack-like fissure. 
The Pallosoma, already mentioned, is a very constant visitor of 
this plant; and had it not been for its conspicuous visitor I 
should have often missed a plant. I think this affords a useful 
hint to collectors, as many small and inconspicuous Asclepiads 
would otherwise have often escaped my notice. 
I have never observed pollen-masses attached to the tarsi of 
this Wasp, nor have I on any occasion seen combinations of the 
glands ; nor do I see how such a combination could be possible, 
as the arm is so attenuated at its junction with the gland that it 18 
very easily ruptured, whereas, at the other extremity, the width 
of the arm is greater than that of the pollen-mass itself. The 
wasp, when visiting the plant, greedily sucks nectar from the 
