82 Rarer Woodland Plants of Scotland. [Sess. 



and their varying rise and fall, account in some measure for 

 the present rarity of plants that should and would, under 

 more favourable circumstances, be found associated with them. 

 Among the scarcer of these plants is one worthy of special 

 attention — Moneses grandiflora, S. F. Gray (Pyrola unifiora, 

 Linn.) It is extremely rare in Scotland, and does not occur 

 elsewhere in the British Islands. Moneses is conspicuous 

 during June and July, Those months cover its flowering 

 period in our northern woods. In flower the plant is three 

 inches or so in height, and bears at the extremity of the re- 

 curved portion of the scape a solitary flower. This one- 

 flowered scape is sufficient to distinguish Moneses from the 

 far more frequently met with British Pyrolas, all with many- 

 flowered scapes. Only once have I detected a twin- (lowered 

 scape. Other differences between the flowers of Moneses and 

 the native Pyrolas (Pyrola absorbs Moneses according to some 

 authorities) are, placing the characters of Moneses first — 

 Petals flat or only slightly concave, not connivent; anther- 

 cells produced with horns, the pollen escaping from their apex, 

 iwt opening by pores close to insertion of filaments. 



Moneses is remarkable for the way in which autogamy or 

 self - pollination takes place, should cross - fertilisation not 

 occur. " The bud about to open and the young flower whose 

 petals have just expanded are borne on stalks which are 

 strangely curved ; and they are thus inverted and pendent. 

 The style is vertical with the stigma, pointing downwards. 

 The filaments are S-shaped, and hold the anthers, which are of 

 the pepper-castor type, with the two pores invariably upper- 

 most, so that the pollen does not fall out of itself, or at any rate 

 cannot come upon the stigma. Insects approaching from 

 below brush first against the stigma, and directly afterwards 

 against the anthers, which are in consequence upset and be- 

 sprinkle the intruders with pollen. This pollen is then 

 carried to other flowers of Moneses, where it is retained by 

 the viscid stigmas and fertilises the ovules. During the 

 period of bloom two changes are effected, which, though not 

 very striking in themselves, are yet of extreme importance 

 with a view to autogamy. In the last stage of the flower the 

 curve of the pedicel no longer amounts to a semicircle, and 

 consequently the flower is no longer absolutely pendulous, but 



