2 



splits into four small teeth, the apex of the style showing between. Later on the 

 segments come apart at the base of the perianth, but for a long time they firmly 

 cohere above the middle of the tube, the • final separation always taking place 

 suddenly and elastically, the four segments each coiling up into a spiral band, 

 which is packed away at the base of the flower. The fully expanded racemes thus 

 represent nothing more than a brush of long styles projecting from a mass of twisted 

 perianth -segments. At the very base of the flower are four rounded glands which 

 secrete an abundance of honey, which usually surrounds the base of the ovary. 

 The flowers have a strong and peculiar odour, easily recognizable in the 

 neighbourhood of a tree in full bloom. Just previous to expansion the anthers 

 open and deposit the whole of their pollen on the surface of the thickened upper 

 portion of the style, where it forms four little ridges. This looks like a simple case 

 of self-fertilization, but a little examination proves that the stigma is not mature 

 until some time after the expansion of the flower, and after the pollen has been 

 removed. Clearly some means must therefore exist by which the pollen is regularly 

 transferred from the younger to the older flowers. Further investigation has shown 

 that this is done through the agency of honey-eating birds, such as the tui 

 (Prosthemadera) and korimako (Anthornis), which regularly frequent the flowers. 

 It is obvious that the bird, in thrusting its head between the styles of a recently 

 expanded raceme, must dust the feathers of the forehead and throat with pollen, 

 and that when it visited older flowers the pollen would be rubbed off on the style, 

 and 231'obably smeared over the stigma. 



Plate 171. 7?'wjr//rfm excete, drawTi fvoiu specimens collected in the vicinity of Auckland. Pig. 1, 

 flower-bud just previous to expansion (x 1|-); 2, fully expanded flower, the perianth-segments coiled 

 up spirally ( x 1-|-) ; 3, anther ( x 3) ; 4, longitudinal section of ovary ( x 3) ; 5, transverse section of 

 same ( x 3) ; 6, seed (natural size) ; 7, the same ( x 2) ; 8, embryo ( x 5). 



