396 OCCASIONAL XOTES OX PLANTS, 



bearing the anthers on the inside and rather below the apices 

 and are so spring-like that they press the anthers down upon the 

 stigma closely, covering it so completely as to prevent any 

 approach to it. The stigma is globular and very large ; in some 

 instances quite as large as the ovary. Almost before the pollen 

 is mature, the stamens begin to rise, leaving the stigma exposed ; 

 but in no specimen that I have examined, although I have found 

 the pollen fully ripe, have I found the stigma prepared to receive 

 it. On the contrary, it has appeared so far from maturity, that 

 I presume that before that condition is attained, the pollen will 

 have disappeared ; which it soon does from various causes, but 

 chiefly by the agitation of the plant by the wind. In fact in 

 several instances, in this plant, also I have found the anthers 

 empty or absent, before the stigma was mature. What the result 

 to be attained is, in the case of the Philotliecaj by imprisioning 

 the stigma in a close cage until the pollen has matured and 

 dispersed, or, in the Boronia, by covering it closely by pressing 

 its own anthers upon it, by the spring-like action of the stamens, 

 till the pollen has all but matured, and then setting it free, still 

 not in a condition to utilise the pollen till after it has dispersed, 

 may be open to question. May it not be, however, that the 

 shielding of the stigma in either case, to a great extent, from the 

 influence of light and heat, retards its attainment of the con- 

 dition necessary to receive and utilise pollen till after the anthers 

 of the same flower have matured and dispersed it, thus making 

 the stigma dependent on the pollen of some other flower, and 

 ensuring cross-fertilization. These are not isolated cases. In 

 my search for botanical specimens, I meet with so many instances' 

 and the employment of such various and often curious means to 

 ensure cross-fertilisation, that I am inclined to think nature 

 intended it to be the rule even in the Vegetable Kingdom. 



The common rose-purple variety, or what I take to be the 

 typical form of Boronia pinnata, differs much from the form I 

 have described. The flowers arc more crowded, the leaves much 



