91 



not allow their pollen to escape as will be seen below. The 

 rarity with lohich fertilisation occurs shoivs us in a very desirable 

 way of hoiv much importance the acquiring of apogaviy is for a 

 plant of this order, as long as apogamy has not been acquired 

 as in Rhopalocnemis , seeds are rare , as soon as this property has 

 been acquired they are most plentiful. It seems to me probable 

 that the rare cases of seed-formation among Rhopalocnemis will 

 occur on hermaphroditic inflorescences while all purely female 

 inflorescences will be doomed to failure. Every body who has seen 

 Balanophorae and Rhopalocnemis in their natural habitat must 

 have been struck by the extreme difficulties there exists to polli- 

 nation. They are found on moist places , in the dense forests , the 

 inflorescences are near to the soil , males and females mostly at 

 large distances from each other, wind hardly ever penetrates so 

 near the soil in these dense forests while I never saw an insect on 

 an inflorescence of Balanophora or Rhopalocnemis. It is therefore 

 most probable that the extreme difficulties in pollination led to the 

 acquisition of apogamy in Balanophora. We have to consider 

 Rhopalocnemis, it seems to me, as a plant in extreme danger 

 of extermination on account of its rarely producing seeds ; who 

 shall say whether it is not at present undergoing a crisis where 

 the question whether it will acquire parthenogenesis or not is 

 one of to be or not to be? 



The male flowers. 



The youngest stages of male flowers I have seen are pictured 

 in fig. 62 PI. XII. In that stage there was nothing but an ho- 

 mogenous primordium, no floral envelop was yet visible. The 

 next stage which was observed is seen in fig. 61 PI. XII. There 

 the single floral envelop has allready been formed. It is seen 

 how nicely the scales and hairs protect the young flowers. 

 Inside of the perianth a somewhat elongated yet nearly half- 

 globular organ is seen, with its base planted directly on the 

 inflorescential axis. This organ is the young stamen, no trace 

 of a concrescence from three stamens can be seen , and all 



