OX THE FERTILISATION OF 

 THE LARCH. 



By Rev. A. S. Wilson, M.A., B.Sc. 

 (Read gth May, i88g.) 



There is ample evidence that the bright colours of flowers are 

 useful in attracting insects which carry pollen from flower to flower 

 and effect cross-fertilisation, thereby conferring great benefit on 

 plants. Lubbock proved that insects are guided by colour in 

 their search for honey ; Darwin found on removing the petals of 

 Lobelia that no bees came near the flowers, and Hermann Miiller's 

 observations show that when other things are equal the number of 

 insect visits which any flower receives increases in proportion to 

 its conspicuousness. 



On the other hand, flowers which depend on the wind for the 

 transport of their pollen are, as a rule, of small size, inconspicuous 

 in appearance and devoid of bright colours, as, for example, 

 grasses, rushes, sedges, docks, nettles, oak, elm, hazel, poplar, ash, 

 and pine, which all belong to the anemophilous or wind-fertilised 

 class. 



To this last rule the larch (Larix europad) presents a remarkable 

 exception. From March to May the young female cones of this 

 tree are among the most conspicuous and attractive objects to be 

 seen in our plantations. If the brilliant crimson tassels of the 

 larch have not hitherto sufficiently impressed the botanical mind, 

 at least they have not escaped the observant eye of the poet, as 

 may be seen from the 91st canto of Tennyson's In Memoriam — 



" When rosy plumelets tuft the larch, 



And rarely pipes the mounted thrush ; 

 Or underneath the barren bush 

 Flits by the sea-blue bird of March/' 



