270 



HARD WICKE ' S S CIE NCE- G SSIP. 



former denizens remained. Within two hundred 

 yards of the former cave, I was fortunate enough to 

 find a vestige of the elephant bed, and a little 

 diligent search was amply repaid by a large number 

 of elephantine and hippopotamine remains, from 

 among which I secured several molars in an excellent 

 state of preservation. 



The extreme hardness of the surrounding matrix 

 made the extracting of them a matter of considerable 

 difficulty, and we had to crack many of them to get 

 a few whole and entire. Fragmentary bones of 

 varying sizes occurred in great abundance, all of 

 which were firmly embedded in a dark, red-coloured 

 earth, intermixed with rolled pebbles and other 

 debris. Further on this same red soil occurred, 

 partly consolidated with infiltrations of carbonate of 

 lime, and literally teeming with the teeth and 

 vertebrre of dormice (^Myoxiis melitensis), and the 

 bones of an immense swan {Cygnus falconeri). They 

 occurred in such vast quantities that my only trouble 

 was which to choose from among so many fine 

 specimens. 



Descending lower still, to a cutting that was being 

 worked by some quarrj-men, I was enabled to add 

 to my bag several Spirifers, and a fine Ostrea 

 navicularis. An appeal to the labourers was the 

 means of adding several sharks' teeth {Carcharadon 

 megalodon), the largest of which measured three and 

 a half inches in perpendicular length, with a base 

 of two and three-fifths inches. Larger than this have 

 been discovered in the upper beds, but even this 

 size affords sufficient testimony of the gigantic pro- 

 portions of its owner in bygone ages. The down- 

 ward progress of the sun now warned us that day was 

 closing, and that it was time to retrace our steps. 

 Collecting our accoutrements, the weight of which 

 had been very considerably augmented by the 

 additions I had made, we commenced the ascent of 

 the cliffs, and two hours later I was snugly ensconced 

 in my easy chair at home, thinking over the wonders 

 and beauties of the day's trip. 

 The Lycairn, Malta. 



THE BEE AND THE WILLOW. 



I HOPE I am not trespassing too much on your 

 valuable space in just making a few additional 

 remarks to Mr. Bulman's paper on the above subject- 

 One would at first sight imagine that the willow 

 was anemophilous, from the mere fact that its 

 flowers appear before its leaves ; but, on closer 

 examination and observation, it becomes apparent 

 that for fertilisation the willow depends essentially on 

 insects, and especially on the bee. For one thing, I 

 do not think the willow produces enough pollen to 

 depend entirely on anemophily. 



Professor Hermann MUUer, one of the greatest 

 authorities on fertilisation living, says, "The willows 



possess special modifications, which bring them great 

 variety of insect-visitors in the first sunny days of 

 spring, and insure them abundant cross-fertilisa- 

 tion.'"^ 



The "special modifications" above referred to 

 by Professor Muller are briefly the following : — 

 I. Union of many flowers on one inflorescence, which 

 is therefore more conspicuous, and more easily sucked 

 by insects, than single flowers. The male flowers 

 are more conspicuous than the female flowers, owing 

 to the light yellow colour of the anthers. 2. The 

 flowers are developed before the leaves, and are thus 

 rendered very conspicuous amongst the bare twigs, 

 without being equipped with any coloured envelopes. 



3. There is a large store of honey and pollen. 



4. The flowers of the willow appear early in spring, 

 when the bees have hardly any other flowers on the 

 honey of which they could feed their young. 



Mr. Bulman has already touched on the question 

 as to how the female flowers are fertilised by insects, 

 when the male flowers are so much more conspicuous. 

 Do the bees alternately visit first a male and then a 

 female flower, or do their visits to male and female 

 flowers merely depend on chance ? 



To say fertilisation were entirely dependent on 

 " chance " would be unscientific, and some reasonable 

 explanation ought to be offered. I beheve the 

 following to be a possible explanation. 



A bee visits first the male flower as being the more 

 conspicuous, and during this visit it takes up a good 

 deal of pollen. This must be more or less of an 

 incumbrance to the animal, and it seeks to get rid of 

 it. By experience (called instinct with lower animals), 

 it knows it can do so best by visiting a female flower. 

 By thus visiting the female flower, the insect gets rid 

 of its pollen, takes up some honey, and the stigma is 

 pollinated. As soon as it has been freed of its yellow 

 burden, it again has the choice before it, and visits 

 the conspicuous (male) flowers. In this manner cross- 

 fertilisation is secured. 



Far from the willow being a degenerate entomo- 

 philous plant, as Professor Henslow says. Professor 

 MUUer considers it to be a more highly developed 

 descendant of anemophilous phanerogams. The 

 hypothesis that the willows were at one time 

 anemophilous explains the fact that the flowers 

 appear before the leaves, which is very characteristic 

 of such plants. 



When the anemophilous plants gradually became 

 frequented by insects, which was probably done on 

 account of the willow being almost the only plant in 

 flower in early spring, the appearing of the flowers 

 before the leaves was an advantage for entomophily, 

 as rendering the otherwise inconspicuous catkins 

 conspicuous, and thus did not pass into a state of 

 degeneracy. 



Of course, I do not say that anemophily does not 



* "Fertilization of Flowers," Eng. ed., p. 324. 



