DEOSERA MACRANTHA AND D. STRICTICAULIS 37 



they connive and form a cluster in the centre of the blossom. 

 Nectar is wanting. 



In September, 1910, I saw a flower visited by a "hover-fly." 

 I watched carefully, and saw that the insect was greedily devour- 

 ing pollen. Its legs frequently brushed against the anthers and 

 once plunged in amongst the feathery style-segments. This 

 observation is merely suggestive and not conclusive ; but I believe 

 that hover-flies are the chief, if not the only, pollinators. 



In 1910 I examined altogether thirty-seven fruiting plants in 

 two localities about five miles apart. They had borne between 

 them four hundred and three flowers, which yielded one hundred 

 and fifty-three fruits (37-96 %). The highest number on any one 

 plant was twenty-nine ; the lowest number was two. 



The remaining information I can best deal with by taking 

 the two species together. The organs, which, following the Flora 

 Australiensis, I have called basal " scales," appear to be phyllodes — 

 petioles functioning as leaves, for quite frequently a fragmentary 

 lamina with a few tentacles appears at the apex of a "scale." 

 They differ from orthodox phyllodes in one point : they are dorsi- 

 ventrally instead of laterally flattened. I have adhered to the 

 term "scales" in my table, because it has been accepted by 

 systematists, and in a general sense the organs in question 

 certainly are scales. That they are so different (see table) in the 

 two species under discussion is remarkable, because D. Huegelii 

 Endl., D. heterophijlla Lindl., and several other species not # con- 

 sidered closely allied to D. macrantha, have basal scales practically 

 not to be distinguished from those of that species. This being so, 

 the marked difference in this case is strong evidence, it seems to 

 me, in favour of the specific distinctness of D. stricticaulis. The 

 difference seems not due to environment, as a species {D. Neesii 

 Lehm. ?) which grows in very wet soil on the edge of running 

 water has scales precisely like those of D. macrantha. I think the 

 primary function of these scales is protection of the terminal bud 

 during the earliest stages, but they persist during the life of the 

 stem and are greenish ; so doubtless they contribute their small 

 quota to the nutrition of the plant. 



The colours of the aerial parts of the plants and their rates of 

 growth are related to the time at their disposal. In D. macrantha 

 these parts have a golden or ruddy hue and grow slowly; the 

 plant has ample time. In D. stricticaulis they are green and 

 grow rapidly ; this plant has but a short period of vital activity, 

 scarcely more than half that of its ally. The tentacles of 

 D. macrantha are strong-looking, with deep red stalks, thus differ- 

 ing markedly from those of D. stricticaulis, which are pale-stalked 

 and of a delicate ethereal appearance. The sticky secretion flows 

 more freely from the leaves of the latter species, but I do not 

 know whether it is the more effective as an insect- catcher on that 

 account. I have made no count of the number of insects caught 

 by either species. 



In both plants in the axil of each leaf there are two organs 

 exactly similar to the leaf except that the petioles are shorter. 



