7G0 FERTILISATION OP SOME AUSTRALIAN AND OTHER PLANTS, 



form are always quite abortive, having only a couple of dozen ill- 

 formed pollen-grains in the sacs, which never open, and the 

 anthers are mere honey-secretors. The filaments are very short, 

 almost suppressed. 



In the other Illawarra species, F. revolutum, Ait., I have never 

 seen any approach to this state of affairs. All the flowers are 



perfect. . 



PHYTOLACCEiE. 



Phytolacca octandra, Linn. — This introduced plant spreads 

 very freely in the Illawarra District. It is proterandrous, but 

 the stigmas soon open and become mature, while the anthers 

 retain their pollen for a long time. I have seen it visited by 

 small pollen-eating beetles once or twice, but it is mostly self- 

 fertilised. Every flower without exception is succeeded by a 

 fruit. The flowers have a strong herbaceous smell, not at all 

 sweet. Its rapid spread is accounted for by the fondness of birds 

 fur the fruits. They are eaten by the regent-bird, cat-bird, satin 

 bird, several species of Ptilotis, the crow-shrike, and the domestic 

 fowl. The fruit colours the excrement deeply, and the shining 

 black seeds pass through the alimentary canal uninjured. The 

 plant springs up most plentifully in ground that has been cleared 

 by burning or on the site of camp tires, a fact that gives it one 

 of its American vernacular names "fire- weed." 



LEGUMIN0S5;. 



Erythrina Indica, Lam. — The stamens are ten, nine below 

 united, and one above. Of the nine lower stamens, five are long 

 and four shorter. At the base of each filament is a gland, the 

 ten forming a ring exterior to the' insertion of the stamens. The 

 glands secrete a rather bitter nectar freely. The calyx-lobes are 

 united into a tube and form a receptacle for the honey. The 

 corolla has a twist in it so that it is at an angle to the central 

 line of the calyx and peduncle. The colour is bright scarlet, a 

 hue often found in bird-fertilised flowers. At Mount Kembla, as 

 I have already noted elsewhere (3), the plants never bear seed. 

 I have repeatedly pollinated stigmas with the pollen of their own 



