1174 NOTES ON PLANTS INDIGENOUS TO SYDNEY. 



the stamens. Mr. Deane suggests that this rapid growth of the 

 style, carrying the stamens for a time with it, causes such a strain 

 upon them that the thin portions of the filaments ai*e ruptured. 

 Of course this rupture may occur in any part of the filament, and 

 this is just what I find, sometimes at the connective, at other times 

 lower down and even close to the broader base. The suggestion 

 however, though in all probability right, lacks confirmation by 

 actual observation. 



When the style has grown far above the anthers it exposes a 

 large mass of pollen adherent to it. In a few days, as a rule, the 

 whole of this pollen disappears. It does not fall into the corolla, 

 nor can it I think be carried away by the wind, as it is not of the 

 dry dusty nature of the pollen of anemophilous flowers. I can 

 therefore only conclude that it is carried away by insects for the 

 fertilisation of other flowers. 



It rarely happens that the stigmatic lobes open before the whole 

 of the pollen has been so carried away ; then however they open 

 widely, forming a convenient stage upon which an insect may 

 alight, and exposing freely the stigmatic surfaces, densely covered 

 with stiff hair-like glands ; which, at the same time, form a brush 

 to sweep the pollen from any insects bearing it, and secrete a fluid 

 to retain it. Thus, like Lobelia, in the same natural order of 

 plants, although somewhat in a different way, this plant first offers 

 its own pollen for the fertilisation of other plants, and then exposes 

 its own stigmas to receive that of other plants in return. 



