BY ALEX. G. HAMILTON. 205 



to tlieni in addition to jiollen and fiai^ments of brush-like haiis. 

 It would appear then that the visiting insects carry pollen from 

 those flowers which are distributing it from the indusium, both on 

 their upper and under surfaces, and in visiting other flowers, leave 

 it either on the brush-tipped hairs whence it is tnken up by the 

 mature stigma resting on these, or on the stigma itself from their 

 backs, and in this way cross-fertilisation is ensured. But it is not 

 necessary for ensuring cross-fertilisation, that the concealed 

 flowers should be visited, if when in the pollen-distributing stage 

 they have been freely visited. For each insect not only takes 

 pollen from an open flower, but if it has visited another, it also 

 leaves sorae on the brushes, and as the stigma when it emerges 

 from the indusium rests on these, it would find there the pollen 

 necessary for impregnation. If the flowers should not be at all 

 visited, they are very likely to be self-fertilised by the pollen 

 which dropped on the brushes. In fact, even if insect-visited it 

 would seem as if they were certain to be partly self-fertilised unless 

 what has been shown to be the case with other plants obtains 

 here, viz., that the foreign pollen is prepotent. In G. Bentham's 

 account of the stigmatic apparatus in this order (5), he says — " In 

 Sccevola .... the stigma is small and more buried in it" 

 [the indusium]. This I have not found to be the case. In fact, 

 in the species I have examined, I have found the stigma to project 

 very much — more so than in most other genera. 



By cutting away the indusium from the mature stigma, ])ol]en 

 may be found inside the cup, being forced into the crevices behind 

 the stigma by the packing proces*!. But it is not at all likely that 

 the base of the stigma is functional and capable of being fertilised, 

 and I have never observed pollen-tubes emitted by the pollen in 

 this situation. The plant fruits very freely, and, as the specific 

 name denotes, the flower is sweet-.scented. The leaves, stem and 

 calyx are closely covered with stifl' hairs, lying close to the surface, 

 which give the plant a harsh feel, and which may be for the pur- 

 pose of keeping away creeping insects, but they appear to me to 

 lie too flat to be of service in this way. 

 1.5 



