28 president's address. 



closely packed into the form of a brush, aud abound iu nectar. 

 Before maturity, the long pistil is curved, so that the stigmatic 

 pomt is inserted between the anijiiers at its foot. At maturity, the 

 pistil becomes erect, bearing on its head the pollen deposited there 

 by the anthers. The tree is visited by a small bird for the nectar 

 in the flowers, and the pollen is taken from tree to tree on its 

 breast and head, which come into contact with the stigma in prob- 

 ing for the nectar. Cross-fertilisation, therefore, is facilitated, aud 

 the existence of the provision for the pollen being deposited natur- 

 ally on each stigma would lead one to expect that, in the ancestral 

 form, this was to insure fertilisation should the floAver not receive 

 pollen from elsewhere. However, in the species under notice, the 

 flowers appear to be incapable of fertilisation with their own pol- 

 len," The writer makes the common mistake of supposing that 

 the whole of the disc on the end of the style is stigmatic, but this 

 is not so. The stigma is a minute, nipple-like point in the centre, 

 and in no species of Protead have 1 ever seen pollen on this. 



Dr. Shirley, in the same volunie{23), has a paper on "Pecu- 

 liarities of the Flowers of the Order Proteacese,'" in wliich he 

 says, speaking of Grevillea : "The lowest have styles with a true 

 stigmatic surface. The central ones have immature styles coated 

 with pollen. The apical ones are still hooked in the perianths, and, 

 where the style-end is adherent to the petals, are clothed round the 

 line of attachment with a copious supply of honey. Parrots and 

 honey-eaters frequent the plants at this and earlier stages, clinging 

 below the flowers, and reaching to the apex of the inflorescence 

 where most honey lies. In doing so, they brush the pollen from 

 the central flowers on their feathers, and, visiting the next branch, 

 attach the grains to the lower stigmas of the next inflorescence, 

 thus fertilising them." He also notes the small proportion of fruits 

 that are sometimes found : "That this apparatus often fails is seen 

 in the few perfect fruits on Hakea and Macadamia bushes which 

 have borne masses of blossoms, and by there being seldom a dozen 

 fruits on a Banksia-cone, which carried a thousand perfect 

 flowers." 



With the assistance of some students, I investigated a bush of 



