2/4 Plants and their Ways in South Africa 



central groove. The flowers are in a cincinnus in the axil of 

 a large spathe. 



Nectarinia afra, one of the sun-birds, corresponding in colour to the 

 flowers, probes for the honey with its long slender beak, and rubs first 

 the stigma and then the anthers, which are exposed, by pressing down on 

 the lip. The fruit is a capsule containing several black seeds with a bright 

 orange feathery arillus. Eastern plants. 



Musa (banana). — The sheaths of leaves, rolled around 

 one another, give the appearance of long stems. The flowers 

 are enclosed in brightly coloured bracts, and are also pollinated 

 by birds. In the cultivated plants no seeds are developed 

 from the ovules. Fruit a berry. 



Order Orchidace/e. 



Strange and grotesque as the orchids often are, by careful 

 study the same parts can be found as are present in the Iridaceae. 

 In the bud, three parts, the sepals overlap the petals. Two 

 sepals are similar to each other, as are also two of the petals. 

 The odd sepal may be, and the odd petal (the lip) is nearly 

 always, peculiar in shape. These parts may be either very large 

 and showy, or so reduced in size as almost to escape notice. 

 As in the Iridaceae, the inner circle of stamens is wanting in 

 South African orchids. Of the outer circle, only one bears 

 pollen. It is always opposite the odd sepal. The other two 

 are peculiar staminodia. All three are joined with the style to 

 form the column.^ A sticky substance formed by the disor- 

 ganized walls of the parent and special parent cells of the pollen 

 grains, holds the grains together in each pollen chamber, and 

 merges to form a stalk. The mass of grains is called a pol- 

 linium and the stalk is known as the caudicle. Two of the 

 stigmas are usually joined, forming a cushion-shaped body for 

 receiving the pollen, while the third is enlarged and forms the 

 rostellum. It furnishes a sticky fluid, forming small white 

 glands. These unite with the caudicles and form the " labels " 

 mentioned on p. 165. 



^ The " style " may be a prolongation of the axis to which the stamens 

 and stigma are attached. 



