292 PROCEEDINGS OP THE ACADEMY OP [1886. 



self-fertilization. The flower is strongly proterandrous. The 

 stamens are mature and shed their pollen co-incident with the 

 expansion of the corolla. The fasciculus of pistils at this time, 

 have not reached half their growth, and is completely covered 

 hy the stamens, which form a dense mass in the centre of the 

 flower. During the day, and the one succeeding, humble and 

 honey bees make this crown of stamens their resting-place. 

 During these two days the pistils have not yet thrust their 

 stigmas above the stamens that crown them. If now we cut a 

 flower through longitudinally, we shall find that a very large 

 quantity of pollen has fallen down within the bundle of pistils 

 this gathering of pollen being evidently aided by the feet of 

 insects that made a landing-place of the staminal crown. Up 

 to this time, however, the pistils not having come to maturity, 

 the pollen thrust in among them would have no physiological 

 significance. But on the morning of the third day, the pistils 

 protrude and are in receptive condition, and they bring up with 

 them large quantities of pollen, so completely covering the 

 surface of each pistil that it would seem almost impossible for 

 any grains of foreign pollen to find any lodgment for effective 

 use ; and though a grain of foreign pollen should get an oppor- 

 tunity to perform its function, it must be evident that the 

 flower's own pollen has the earliest opportunities for usefulness, 

 and must in almost every case be the fertilizing agent. An 

 interesting note may be here recorded in reference to the 

 power of own-pollen over fertilit}-. Mr. Darwin in his " Cross- 

 and Self-Fertilization," page 141, referring to his single experi- 

 ment among malvaceous plants. Hibiscus Africanus^ found a 

 larger number of cx'ossed flowers produced capsules than among 

 the self-fertilizing ones ; but in the case of these evidently self- 

 fertilized flowers, no one seemed to fail in producing seed 

 every pistil, indeed, producing a perfectly fertile carpel. At the 

 end of the third day the flowers closed, twisting in the opposite 

 direction, as already noted. 



On Projection of Pollen in the Flowers of Indigof era. Exhib- 

 iting some flowers of Indigofera Dosua, Mr. Meeiian remarked 

 that the peculiar bending back of the carina in the flowers 

 of Indigofera has been long known. Referring to the whole 

 genus, Don, in the General History of Dichlamydeous Plants, 

 published in 1837, says, " Keel furnished with a subulate spur on 

 both sides, at length usually bending back elastically." In 1863 

 Decandolle and Treviranus, in Botanische Zeitung, page 3, refer 

 to this bending back of the keel and say it is not an elastic 

 motion, but simply a falling down on the full development of the 

 flower ; and the latter remarks, as quoted by Henslow, that " all 

 these movements occur in the natural development of the parts, 

 and only after self-fecundation takes place." Dr. Hildebrand, in 

 the same magazine for 1866, seems to admit that finally the keel 



