PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 27 



visit a flower in which the stigma is receptive, some pulleii would 

 uudoiibtedly reach it. I captured a bird while feeding, and found 

 a considerable smear of pollen 'on the neck. As a rule, birds 

 feeding on nectar allow a much closer approach, and it seems also 

 as if they lost some of their fear of man ; for when I held a blos- 

 som to the bird in my hand, it inserted its bill, and fed on the 

 nectar. 1 have seen a note on honey-eating birds stating that they 

 may become intoxicated with the honey, and even drop to the 

 ground at times, but, unfortunately, I omitted to record the refer- 

 ence. There is no doubt, however, that some flowers produce nec- 

 tar which is more or less intoxicating. That of Banksia ericifolia 

 is so, and is apt to produce, a severe headache in some people. 

 Although the birds were most assiduous in their attentions to the 

 trees I hail under observation, no fruits were produced. I care- 

 fully pollinated a large number of flowers, and found that the 

 fruit developed till it was four inches in length, and as thick as a 

 knitting needle, but at this stage it invariably dropped oft'. Her- 

 mann Muller(2) says that Darwin states, on the autliority of 

 MacArthur's Observations tliat, in New South Wales, Erythrina 

 does not produce good fruit unless the flowers are shaken. But the 

 late Mr. G. H. Cox told me that it bore seed freely at Mulgoa. And 

 I have been told that it seeds plentifully on the Northern Rivers 

 and in Queensland. 



The Note on Teloj^ea states : "The flowers produce very large 

 quantities of nectar at certain stages, so that if a head is shaken, a 

 shoAver of drops is thrown ott'. They are nuich visited by Acan- 

 thorhynchus and other honey-eating birds, j^et they rarely produce 

 fruits; but when a plant does, it usually develops a large num- 

 ber. In one instance, I observed a head wliich was nuich damaged 

 by some larvae, and this head afterwardjs developed several 

 capsules." Later I was able to watch one of these birds at a head, 

 which was in the nectar-bearing stage. 1 could not get close 

 enough to see just where the pollen was deposited on the bird, but 

 I marked the plant, and afterwards found eleven capsules on it. 



Ho]tze{22) gives tlie following account of the pollination of 

 Grevillea chrysodendron: — "The showy flowers of this species are 



