424 NOTES ON PLANTS INDIGENOUS TO SYDNEY, 



and the placenta rudimentary only ; stamens, with anthers fully 

 developed, but without pollen ; and the style, not a tube, but solid. 

 The genus is said to be, to some extent, Polygamous, and I have 

 no doubt it is, but in the specimens that I have examined, I 

 have found no unisexual flowers, nor even the state of some 

 Lobelias, which, one flower haviDg a perfect pistil with imperfect 

 stamens, while another has perfect stamens with an imperfect 

 pistil, are virtually unisexual. In this plant, however, all the 

 flowers that I have found imperfect, have been so entirely, so far 

 as fertilisation is concerned ; for although the ovary has externally 

 been of the usual form, it has contained no ovules, and though the 

 stamens have borne fully developed anthers, they have been void 

 of pollen. 



In every part of the flower, corolla, calyx, ovary, and even far 

 down the pedicel, there are embedded in its substance, peculiar 

 granular masses of a red colour, and varying in size from ^ m to 5 ^ of 

 an inch. In the ovary they form a circle embedded in its walls, 

 and even with the assistance of an ordinary pocket lens, any one, 

 not on his guard, may be misled into the belief that they are 

 ovules. An inspection with the microscope, however, soon 

 convinces one to the contrary. Although so embedded in the 

 substance of the flower, they can be picked out separately with a 

 fine needle, leaving a clean cell-like impression behind. 



In my former papers I have expressed my belief that, as a rule, 

 flowers are cross-fertilised, either from others on the same plant, or 

 more remotely, from those of a separate plant. Myrsine variabilis is, 

 no doubt, one of the exceptions to that rule. With the corolla so 

 closed as to prevent any pollen bearing insect having access to the 

 stigma (and that not for a time only, but certainly till after the 

 work of fertilisation has been completed), and with the anthers 

 opening directly over the stigma, or mouth of the tubular style, 

 and the apparently easy access of the pollen to the ovary, I think 

 there can be no doubt that the plant is self-fertilised. 



Taking the word in its simple botanical sense, as applied to plants 

 closely fertilised in unopened blossoms, then this plant Myrsine 

 variabilis may be considered as Cleistogamous. I am not, however, 



