PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 



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Thonison(l6) gives a good account of the pollination of the 

 Glory-pea {Clianfhus punicpus). The birds concerned are the 

 Tui, and the Korimako. The calyx of the flower contains a 

 large drop of honey. Birds, in inserting their beaks, push back 

 the carina, and this retains its hold of the style for a consider- 

 able time, till the pressure becomes too great, when the latter is 

 jerked forward by its own elasticity, and throws out the accumu- 

 lated pollen on the intruder's head. Of Fuchsia excorticata, F. 

 Colensoi, and F. procumbent, he says that each species is dimor- 

 phic. The larger forms are green and purple, with exserted 

 anthers. Both forms are scentless, but contain much honey. 

 They appear to be fertilised by Tuis and honey-birds. The 

 flowers are pendulous, affording no resting-place for insects, 

 and have so large a quantity of honey that any insects, except 

 long-tongued forms, would be drowned. Kirk(17) says F. 

 excorticata and anothei' species which he does not name, are 

 trimorphic, and that, in the latter species under cultivation, 

 the mid- and short-styled forms ai'e certainly self-fertilised. 

 But in F. excoi'ticata, "the entire work of fertilisation is effected 

 by two forms only; the long-styled can exercise no influence on 

 the fertilisation of other flowers; it is a female flower, and, there- 

 fore, must receive pollen from the mid- or short-styled form, or 

 from both. It is, therefore, remarkable, that long-styled flowers 

 produce fruit in greater profusion than the mid- or short-styled. 

 In the absence of experiments, it would be rash to assert that 

 the short- and mid-styled forms are incapable of fertilisation, but 

 there can be no doubt that the application of pollen of either 

 form to the stigma of thfe other would result in the formation of 

 lai'ge numbers of seeds The short-styled form may occa- 

 sionally be self-fertilised, as detached pollen falling from its 

 stamens may come in contact with the sides of its stigma. Birds 

 are the usual agents for the transfer of pollen from one plant to 

 another. It is interesting to watch them poising on the wing 

 and dexterously inserting their beaks into the slender tube of 

 the flower." Thomson also enumerates, as bird -pollinated, the 

 following — Sophora tetraptera, chiefly visited by honey-birds 



