t't^ESlDENTS ADDRESS. 2l 



Stigma is now probably receptive. Near the base, (4) the peri- 

 anths have fallen, nectar is present, and the stigma mature, and 

 ready for pollen. The last stage (5) is the setting of seed, or the 

 fall of the flower if pollination has not taken place. 



The flowers are freely visited by Hymenoptera and Diptera. 

 Owing to the height of the stigma, however, it is only rarely 

 that insects pollinate the flowers. Silver-eyes and sparrows also 

 visit the flowers. The former cling to the lower side of the 

 raceme, inserting the tip of the beak in the nectary at the base 

 of the ovary, pulling the flower over on its stalk In pulling 

 the flowers down, the stigmas of stages 3 and 4 are sometimes 

 rubbed against those in stages 2 and 3, and thus cross-pollination 

 may ensue. Sparrows alight in the middle of the raceme, and, 

 in moving about, probably cause pollination. Observation of 

 seeding racemes shows that, as a rule, the flowers near the base 

 only are pollinated, probably from the other flowers near bv. 

 Those near the tip, if pollinated at all, receive the pollen from 

 the flowers of other racemes 



In Dr. Shirley's paper, he mentions that, in Grevillea (species 

 not mentioned) the tube of the style appears first at the base, 

 and develops upwards. It is lined with cells resembling those 

 of the stigmatic tissue, and it is only when the tube-development 

 reaches the tip of the style, that a true stigma is formed. The 

 interior of the tip of the style is lined with peculiar, large, thick- 

 walled, dotted cells, probably a nutritive tissue absorbed bv the 

 living tissue of the style-tube. A. S. Wilson(20) has speculated 

 on the likelihood of the loose, cellular substance of the interior 

 of styles, acting like a plug of cotton-wool in a culture-flask, in 

 keeping out fungus-spores from the cavity of the ovary. 



Enough has been said, however, to show that both field and 

 laboratory- work well worth while can be found in this thoi-ouuhlv 

 Australian Order. 



I have already alluded to the want of systematic observations 

 on the method of pollination in Acacia and Eucalyptus. It is a 

 very lamentable thing that no one has taken these genera up. 

 Here we have two very large and, from either the scientific or 

 the ecohomic points of view, very important and characteristic 



