PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION D. 473 
2.—NOTES ON THE FERTILISATION OF XNIGHTTA. 
By T. F. Cueeseman, F.LS., Curator of the Auckland 
Museum. 
Some years ago [ published in the New Zealand Journal of Science 
some notes on the fertilisation of Axightia, one of the two species 
of Proteacee indigenous to New Zealand. Since then I have had 
opportunities of examining the subject with more care, and it 
has occurred to me that a veswme of what I have been able to 
make out may not be without interest to the members of the 
Australasian Association. 
Up to the present time very little has been published on the 
fertilisation of the Proteacee. Many years ago Mr. Bentham, in a 
suggestive paper printed in the journal of the Linnzan Society 
(“ Botany,” vol. 13, p. 58), pointed out that in most of the species 
the anthers open while the flower is still unexpanded, and 
discharge their pollen on an enclosed portion of the style often 
described as the stigma. Thus, on a superficial examination, it 
might be concluded that the flowers fertilised themselves, and 
several observers have fallen into this very natural error. In 
reality, however, either the stigma does not mature until long 
after the expansion of the flower, and until after all the pollen 
has been swept off the style, or else special contrivances exist by 
which the stigma is shielded from the pollen so liberally scattered 
around it, and reserved for the action of pollen brought from 
other flowers. The general plan of fertilisation is thus somewhat 
analogous to that of the Composite, where, as is well-known, 
the anthers cohere into a cylinder surrounding the style-branches, 
on the pubescent or papillose outside of which the pollen is 
usually shed. But fecundation cannot take place at this stage, 
for the stigmatic surface is always on the inner face of the style 
branches, which remain firmly closed together until some little 
while after the expansion of the flower ; and before they separate 
the pollen has usually been brushed off by the visits of insects, 
or removed by other means; so that, to ensure fertilisation, 
pollen must be regularly conveyed from younger flowers to older 
ones. This is precisely what takes place in the Proteacee ; butas 
in that order the style is always undivided, and the stigma con- 
sequently external, much more elaborate contrivances are often 
required to screen off the pollen of the same flower. Some of 
these contrivances are so remarkable that it has long been a 
matter of surprise to me that so few of them have been fully 
examined and described. 
The curious inflorescence of Anightia is familiar to most 
settlers in the northern portion of New Zealand. The flowers, 
which are of a bright red-brown colour, and very conspicuous, are 
arranged in pairs on stout lateral racemes, each raceme containing 
\ 
