70 NOTES ON PLA.NTS INDIGENOUS TO SYDNEY, 



closed. Of the three heads, one, comprising fourteen flowers, had 

 pollen of on four the stigmas. A second, having twelve flowers, 

 had no pollen on the stigmas. The third, which contained sixteen 

 flowers at first, but now only thirteen, three having withered, had 

 pollen on seven of the stigmas. 



I think the fact that, in the whole of these flowers, the anthers 

 were closely shut up within the corollas, while the stigmas were 

 outside at some distance from them, and that no communication 

 could possibly take place between them ; proves, beyond doubt, 

 that they were cross-fertilized ; or that, at least, the pollen on the 

 stigmas came from some other flowers. It also proves, I think, 

 that if my estimate of the proportion of closed and open flowers is 

 correct, ninety-five per oent. of them are entirely dependent on the 

 remaining five per cent, for their fertilization. While sitting at a 

 little distance from this plant, trying to think out how it could 

 have been fertilized — for up to that time I had seen no open 

 flowers — I noticed two or three small bees hovering about one 

 particular part of it. If I frightened them away they invai'iably 

 returned to the same place ; and, upon searching there, I found a 

 head of ten flowers, three of which were open ; the anthers were 

 fully exposed, and the pollen exuding from them. I revisited it 

 several times, but, from first to last, the same three flowers only 

 had opened. 



The stigma is very small, being merely the point of the style ; 

 but there is one feature in the plant which I consider of great 

 importance. Immediately below the stigma is a ring of stiff hair- 

 like glands, which secrete an adhesive fluid copiously. This 

 secretion is greater in the young than in the mature flower. 

 Indeed, if a bud is opened, it will be found so copious that a broad 

 baud or ligature is formed of it, extending from the style across to 

 the inner surface of the corolla. As the flower approaches 

 maturity, although the secretion is not so copious, it collects in 

 considerable quantity, forming a globule close under the stigma ; 

 and not only often creeping up to it, but running clown the style 

 In the course of time it dries into a smaller mass. 



