BY A. G. HAMILTON. 365 



theory that the parts of an organism that have undergone tlie 

 most modification also show the greatest depth of colouring. The 

 flower-stalks and undersides of the leaves are densely covered 

 with stellate hairs; the upper-sides of the leaves are less thickly 

 covered, and the edges are armed with short thick conical hairs. 

 The calyx and lobes of corolla (but not the membranous wings) 

 are covered with dark olive-green branching hairs, resembling 

 those of D. luteiflora (Fig. 14). 



Referring to this genus, Mr. Bentham says [3] : " In Dampiera 

 the summit of the style, when short in the buds, has the appear- 

 ance of an ordinary peltate stigma, except that it is not yet 

 papillose, flat and nearly circular, with the rudiment of the stigma 

 across the centre. It soon rises, the margins are raised into a 

 short almost two-lipped indusium; but I do not And that it carries 

 any pollen with it, and the stigma does not assume the perfect 

 appearance till the whole indusium and the stigma has ensconced 

 itself between the two upper petals, which closely embrace it by 

 means of two thickened concave appendages, requiring some 

 external agency to open them and give access to the pollen." 



This is a perfectly accurate description of the mechanism of the 

 flower, except that the pollen is carried by the up-growing style. 

 Indeed, in reading the paper I was struck with the correctness of 

 the descriptions of the process in all the genera; and it is all the 

 more remarkable when it is remembered that the author had 

 only dried plants to deal with. 



After finishing the above account of D. Broivyiii, I observed a 

 fact which I had previously missed, but which is of great import- 

 ance. A very large proportion of the flowers of this species are 

 resupinate, so that the auricles are on the lower side and the three 

 other petals on the upper side of the flower. When a flower is 

 in this position it is manifestly impossible for the pollen accumu- 

 lated in the auricles to drop out on the insect. But on the other 

 hand, an insect visiting such a flower would be smeared on the 

 underside by the projecting stream of pollen coming out of the 

 indusium, and in visiting another flower in which all the pollen 

 had been exuded the pollen from other flowers would be left on 



