474 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION D. 
from 40 to 80 flowers, or even more. Before expansion the 
perianth is cylindrical in shape, slightly swollen at the base and 
then contracted, but again gradually thickened towards the 
extremity. It is about 13 inch long, and externally is every- 
where covered with a dense velvety tomentum. In the young 
bud there is no appearance of segments, but some time before 
expansion the top of the tube splits into four minute teeth, the 
apex of the style showing between. Later on the segments come 
apart at the base of the perianth, and by degrees the separation 
extends higher up. For a long time, however, they firmly cohere 
in the upper swollen part of the tube, and the final separation 
always takes place suddenly and elastically, the four segments 
each coiling up into a tight spiral band, which is packed away at 
the very base of the flower. The fully-expanded racemes show, 
therefore, little more than a brush of long styles projecting from 
a mass of twisted perianth segments, and present a very different 
appearance to those in the bud state, so that I have had the two 
brought to me as the flowers of two distinct plants! The anthers 
are four in number, sessile towards the tops of the perianth lobes, 
and in the bud form a ring round the upper part of the style, to 
which they are closely applied. The style is over an inch in 
length, rather slender at the base, but much swollen in its upper 
half, forming a lengthened club-shaped termination usually con- 
sidered as the stigma, but I very much doubt the whole of it 
being truly stigmatic. At the base of the flower are four rounded 
glands, secreting an abundance of nectar, which slowly exudes 
from them and usually surrounds the base of the ovary. The 
flowers have a strong and very peculiar odour, a single raceme 
being quite sufficient to unpleasantly scent a close room. 
If a flower is examined just prior to expansion, it will be 
noticed that the anthers have opened down their inner face and 
deposited the whole of their pollen on the moist surface of the 
thickened portion of the style, on which it forms four little 
ridges. After the opening of the flower, and the coiling up of 
the perianth segments, the pollen is thus left exposed on the 
surface of the style. As mentioned before, this looks like a 
simple case of self-fertilisation, but a little examination proves 
that the stigmatic surface is not mature until some time after the 
flowers open; and that before it is in a receptive condition the 
pollen has.all been removed. Some means must therefore exist 
by which the pollen is regularly transferred from the younger to 
the older flowers. It is natural to assume that this is done 
through the agency of insects, especially as the great abundance 
of honey induces many to visit the flowers. But in most cases. 
they simply crawl about between the styles, and never touch 
either the pollen or stigma elevated far above them. It appears. 
to me that large insects alone could aid in the work of fertilisa- 
tion; and even among these the nocturnal or crepuscular moths. 
