

IN JAVA. 81 



can efiect it); that the pollen grains exscrt their pollen tubes 

 while still in the anthers; and that Loth the external and the 

 internal surfaces of the lobes of the pistil are covered uith 

 papilla9, indicating that these surfaces are functionally active. 

 I have never observed these flowers approached by the ants 

 that infest the interior, nor by any other insect, which to gain 

 admission to the flower, even if apen, must bo veiy mv<x\\ 



indeed. The anthers and 



reach 



a 



inaturity. together, yet it would seem tliut self-fertilisation 

 alone can take place; perhaps the tubes of the pollen grains 

 Avhich fall to the bottom of the corolla manage to reach the 

 lower lobes of the pistil and produce fecundation. 



The seeds I planted germinated with great freedom, and I 

 cultivated quite a number of young Myrmecodia, whose growth I 

 watched with the greatest interest. ^lany of them I kejjt quite 

 isolated from the interference not only of the Fheidule javana, 

 which seems to be the only species of ant which lives in these 

 plants in their native state, but of all other species, and I was 

 surprised to find that from their very earliest appearance this 

 curious galleried structure arose icithout the presence 



nts, and that the plants continued to grow and thrive vigo- 

 rously in their absence as long as I cultivated them. Some 

 bulbs had a sin<:;le canal reaching to their centre from a round 

 orifice opening generally close to tlie little tap-root; others 

 presented one or two loculi in the interior, without any 

 communication at first with the exterior, 

 partially full of a spongy substance look- 

 ing like its own degenerated tissue. These 

 chambers invariably developed a spongy 

 pith — which in a section it was not diffi- 

 cult to trace out in advance in the still 

 fleshy substance— towards and to open at 

 last at one or more spots on the exterior of tttTioN oi- a iOMt^vnAT 

 the bulb. Secondary galleries, arising in o^oer osb. 

 the same manner as the primary, soon formed communicating 

 channels, extending with age, throughout the whule of the 

 growing bulb. At a later ^period, in Amboina, where the 

 Mijrmecodia and the Hydn'ophjtum were very abundant,^ I 

 found many specimens containing a large central and quite 

 isolated chamber full of water— not rain-water— round which 



