DROSERA MACRANTHA AND D. STRICTICAULIS 41 



A D. macrantha praecipue differt caule rigido erecto, cataphyllis 

 pilosis nee glabris, seminibus complanatis circularibus nee rectis 

 vel parum curvatis. 



My description is based upon a study of many specimens. My 

 numbers 719, 720, and 721 in Herbb. Mus. Brit., Melbourne, and 

 Sydney respectively well represent the species. 



Addendum, April, 1912. 



The above paper was written early in 1911, and is a record of 

 my observations up to the end of 1910. While further observa- 

 tions have not led me to reverse any opinion I have expressed, 

 they have added a little to my knowledge of the plants. 



(1) In September last my brother Philip called my attention 

 to some D. macrantha plants with pink blossoms, most of them 

 paler in shade than D. stricticaulis flowers. They were growing 

 in the Talbot district, about twelve miles south-west of York. As 

 nature had thus performed for me an experiment I much wished 

 to make, I made careful arrangements for estimating the relative 

 proportions of pink flowers and white ones (they were growing 

 close together in the same locality) securing pollination ; but 

 owing to an unfortunate accident my labour proved fruitless. 

 D. stricticaulis was plentiful not far away, but apart from its 

 colour I saw no reason for suspecting the pink-flowered D. 

 macrantha to be a hybrid. 



(2) Through the kindness of Dr. A. Morrison, of Perth, W.A., 

 I have had the privilege of perusing Diels's Memoir on the 

 Droseracecs. The figure therein given of D. macrantha admirably 

 represents the plant as I know it, except that the attitudes of the 

 leaves are not quite life-like. Dr. Diels is under the impression 

 that the leaves, acting as climbing organs, give up assimiiatory 

 work (pp. 15, 35). Such is not the case. In September last I 

 carefully examined all the clinging leaves on twelve plants of 

 D. macrantha, taken at random in several localities : of the one 

 hundred and twenty-five leaves examined one hundred and fifteen 

 contained insect remains. In no case did a plant have all its 

 clinging leaves free from insects ; but in seven cases all such con- 

 tained insect remains. In one instance one of the "axillary pair," 

 which also had caught insects, was acting as climbing organ, the 

 primary leaf being free. I note with satisfaction that Dr. Diels 

 regards the axillary leaf-like organs as secondary leaves, as I came 

 to the same conclusion independently. 



(3) Horticultural experience inclines me to believe that soil 

 temperature begins to rise about August. It has struck me that 

 this probably accounts for the time of the appearance of D. stricti- 

 caulis. On this point I am making observations, which I hope to 

 make known in due course. 



I wish to express my indebtedness to Professor W. B. Bot- 

 tomley, who first directed my attention to Droseras, and to Mr. 

 Spencer Moore, whose keen interest, especially in climbing 

 Droseras, has kept alive and strengthened my own. But for 

 these gentlemen the present paper would probably never have 



