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secreted in its upper parts by as many nectaries, the transpiration- 
loss of which is made good by fresh supplies of fluid, day and night, 
as long as flowering continues. 
Inside this moist cup there are the ovary and the stamens, which 
remain in a state of rest during the flowering period, and receive 
only a small supply of water from the thalamus. For to the extent 
that they are enclosed in the cup (the ovary for its full length, and 
the stamens with the exception of the anthers) they are protected 
against dessication by damp surroundings, whereas the anthers, 
hanging out of the cup, are exposed to evaporation. 
According to the analysis of Bonnier the nectar is very rich in 
water and contains at most 5—-7 °/, of sugar. If there were no sugar 
at all in the fluid, one would not hesitate to call the nectaries of 
Fritillarta perianth-hydathodes, and to consider them quite similar 
to the calyx-hydathodes of Spathodea campanulata and similar plants. 
In fritidlaria the nectar does not come into direct contact with 
the ovary, but is found outside the sexual organs. This method of 
nectar-secretion, which I purpose to call, for the sake of brevity, 
a peripheral one, is not the most general. A number of plants may 
indeed be cited, which agree with Mritillaria in this respect, suchas 
Trollius, Abutilon, Liliwn and Helleborus, but in most plants the 
nectar is secreted in such a way, that the ovary is directly moistened 
by it, as in Labiatae, Boraginaceae, Solanaceae and other orders. 
In contradistinetion to the peripheral, | wish to call this a central 
secretion of nectar. Very often the nectar is secreted in more than 
one part of the flower; in such cases there is a combination of the 
peripheral with the central method. 
In numerous plants the moistening of the ovary is greatly increased 
by a thick covering of soft hairs or by a thick felt, which covering 
is saturated with nectar in various ways. Sometimes the nectar is 
secreted by the ovary-wall, and ascends between the hairs, as is 
for instance, the case in most species of Verbascum and in Heli- 
anthemum vulgare, which are wrongly called nectarless plants. In 
other cases the covering itself consists of hairs which secrete glucose ; 
this occurs for instance in the species of Paeonia, another genus 
which is wrongly considered to be devoid of nectar. Often, however, 
the nectar which saturates the ovary-covering, is brought up from 
the thalamus, as for instance in Pulsatilla and other Ranunculaceae, 
which will be considered below. Especially when such covered ova- 
ries are close together (e.g. in Pulsatilla each flower has about 100 
Ovaries) it may be readily imagined, that by evaporation of the nectar 
