16 president's address. 



of our Fellows who may be resident in Australia, that I lay 

 before the Society the peculiarities which I have observed." 

 And he follows this up in the Flora Australiensis (Vol. iv.) by 

 saving : " Goodenoviese are readily known by the remarkable 

 indusium, which evidently, together with the peculiar surround- 

 ing hairs of the style or of the corolla, acts a considerable part 

 in assisting the proper impregnation of the stigma. The con- 

 trivances by which this impregnation is impeded, retarded, or 

 promoted, appear to be very different in different genera, as, for 

 instance, in Goodenia, Leschenaultia, and Dampiera, and are 

 well worthy of careful observation on the part of botanists resi- 

 dent in Australia, where the flowers can be observed subject to 

 the natural operations of insects, as well as of climatological and 

 other external influences," His account of the mechanisms in 

 the former paper is extremely good, really wonderful when we 

 consider that he saw only dried specimens of the great majority 

 of the species. Notwithstanding the very curious nature of the 

 floral arrangements, his pious aspirations were many years 

 without fulfilment. 



It was natural that Darwin should be attracted by the unusual, 

 floral mechanism described, and, in 1860, he had the opportunity 

 of observing Leschenaulta formosa, publishing a shOrt paper in 

 1871. The part of the Gardener's Chronicle in which it appeared 

 does not seem to be in any of the Sydney libraries. 



The next attempt to solve the riddle is due to the late Mr. E. 

 Haviland, who, in 1882, began a series of papers on plants in the 

 neighbourhood of Sydney. Among them was one on the fertilisa- 

 tion of Goodenia ovata{i3). In this paper, Mr. Haviland gave an 

 account of the floral mechanism, but missed one or two of the 

 most important points. In the buds, the anthers are arranged 

 arching over the open mouth of the indusium, at the bottom of 

 which is the immature stigma. The bud is then in an upright 

 position, and the style lengthens very rapidly. The membranous 

 edges of the petals are folded so as to keep the anthers closely 

 pressed over the style and indusium; and, as the latter grows 

 up, the anthers dehisce and shed their pollen into the indusium. 

 Then the indusium closes, the flower changes to a horizontal 



