( 451 ) 
The secretion is very abundant. Generally large drops hang down 
from the nectaries in plants in the open. If a cut flowering specimen 
be placed in a glass of water, under a high bell-jar — in a fairly 
moist space therefore, where evaporation is limited — drops may 
be seen to fall down from time to time. When plants which have 
been grown in pots, are placed in a dark room some time before 
the opening of the flowers, it is found that the secretion of nectar 
is quite independent of light and continues day and night. If the 
nectar be removed by means of a pipette, the drops are renewed 
as well and as quickly as in the light. The nectar can be removed 
for several days; each time new drops appear again. From this we 
may deduce, that the evaporation of nectar in plants in the open 
air is fairly considerable, and that the nectaries continue to act as 
long as the flowering-period lasts. 
Fritillaria imperialis is one of those plants, in which the dehiscence 
of the anthers depends on loss of water by transpiration. Although 
in many orders, such as the Papilionaceae, Antirrhineae, Rhinanthaceae, 
Malvaceae the dehiscence of the anthers is independent of the hygros- 
copie condition of the atmosphere, and the pollen is equally well 
liberated in a moist flower as in dry air, this is not the case in 
Fritillaria. As has been said above, the tissue of the filament indeed 
contains a considerable quantity of glucose, but nevertheless the 
osmotic action, which the sugar exerts in abstracting water from the 
anthers, is evidently not enough to make them dehisce. If a young 
flower be enclosed in a moist glass box, or a cut plant be placed 
under a high bell-jar in surroundings, which are only moderately 
damp, the anthers remain closed during the whole of the flowering 
period, whereas in the open air they often dehisce on the first day 
in bright, dry, spring weather, after having lost 90°/, of water. It 
follows from this experiment, that the anthers can dehisce, because 
they protrude from under the flower. If this were not the case, if 
the filaments were a few centimetres shorter, the moist air, inside 
the flower, would prevent the dehiscence of the anthers. That during 
the flowering-period there is a strong current of water through the 
vascular bundles of the perianth-leaves, which continually supplies 
the latter with water to compensate for the loss by transpiration, 
needs as little proof as the fact, that this watercurrent has been 
turned away from the stamens. If this were not so, there could be 
no question of the dehiscence of the anthers. 
I now come to the conclusion, that the Mritillaria-flower is to be 
regarded as a cup in which the air is continually kept moist during 
the flowerlng period by the evaporation of 6 large drops of fluid, 
