BY E, HAVILAND. 293 



could not fertilize it. B was in much the same state as on the 

 preceding day ; the single stamen, with its open anther, still 

 pressing on the stigma. C, in which the seven stamens impended 

 over the mature stigma, had the whole of these stamens refiexed, 

 but the anthers still closed. B, therefore was the only one 

 requiring further attention. Three days afterwards. I re-examined 

 this flower and found the filament of the stamen withered ; the 

 stigma mature and bearing pollen from the anther of its own flower. 

 This pollen could not easily be brushed off. A proof, I think, that 

 some of the pollen tubes had already penetrated the stigma. I 

 took this flower home, and with a microscope power of 300 

 diameters, could distinctly trace the pollen tubes for some little 

 distance, but could not follow them into the ovary ; still there 

 can be no doubt, that if I had left this flower on the plant, it 

 would have been self-fertilized. I have also, as I have already 

 mentioned, found in some cases, pollen in the bottom of the cup, 

 at the base of style ; showing that occasionally the anthers shed 

 their pollen after the stamens have become erect, but before they 

 are refiexed ; and as I have sometimes found very small apterous 

 insects also in the cup amongst this pollen, and loaded with it ; I 

 have no doubt that it is occasionally conveyed by them to the 

 stigma of the same flower. I may say that although what I have 

 written refers more especially to L. flavescens and L. attenuatum, 

 yet, from what I have seen of the other species, I think it will 

 equally apply to the whole genus 



The impression made upon my mind, with regard to this genus, 

 is, that, as a rule, the plant must be cross-fertilised. This cross- 

 fertilisation being brought about by two means. First, by the 

 difference in the times of maturing of the anthers and the stigma, 

 and secondly, by the change in their relative positions. For I 

 think that these notes show, that even after the stamens and 

 anthers are perfectly formed, the stigma is very far from maturity, 

 often indeed but a mere speck upon the ovary. That as the style 

 lengthens and the stigma takes its proper hollow-peltate form, and 

 becomes mature and viscid ; so the anthers avoid it by the stamens 

 becoming first erect and then refiexed or bent quite away from it. 

 u 



