PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION D. 475 
could be of little service, as the styles are far enough apart to 
allow of their probosces being inserted without touching them. 
Possibly some of the larger Diptera or Coleoptera, as well as the 
honey-bee (which is a regular visitant), may be of use; but the 
conclusion I have arrived at is that the flowers are principally 
adapted for fertilisation by honey-feeding birds, such, for example, 
as the Tui (Pvrosthemadera nove-sealandig) and the Korimako 
(Anthornis melanura). 'That the former bird regularly frequents 
the flowers I have myself repeatedly observed, and old and obser- 
vant residents, who were well acquainted with the habits of the 
Korimako before its disappearance from our northern forests, all 
agree in stating that it was equally ready to take advantage of 
the luscious supply of honey offered by the plant. In addition 
to these two species, I have noticed the Kaka Parrot (Vestor 
meridionalis) sucking the honey from the flowers, as also the 
little white-eye (Zosterops ceulescens), but I do not think that 
either is such a frequent visitant as the Tui. 
A glance at the flowers will at once show how fertilisation is 
effected. It is obvious that a bird, when thrusting its head 
between the styles of a recently-expanded raceme in search of the 
honey, must dust the feathers of the forehead and throat with 
pollen. And if it should afterwards visit flowers in a more 
advanced stage, it is quite certain that much of this pollen would 
be rubbed off on the moist surface of the style, and fecundation 
consequently take place. 
Knightia is not the only New Zealand plant in which the work 
of fertilisation is mainly performed by birds. The flowers of the 
red kowhai (C/ianthus puniceus) rarely produce seed in our 
gardens, simply because that in such situations they are seldom 
visited by birds. Some years ago, a fine plant growing in my 
own garden, profusely loaded with flowers, was visited by a stray 
Kaka parrot, which spent the greater part of one day in sucking 
the honey from the flowers. That season the plant was loaded 
with pods, although in no previous year could more than two or 
three be obtained at one time. The yellow kowhai (Sophoza 
tetraptera) is largely (but not exclusively) fertilised by birds, as 
also is the tree fuchsia (7. excorticata). There can be little doubt, 
too, that in the various species of JWetrosideros there is a good 
deal of cross-fertilisation through the agency of birds. 
It is now well established that cross-fertilisation possesses 
undoubted advantages over self-fertilisation ; and an excellent 
argument in favour of this view may be inferred from the case of 
Knightia. We find that the structure and arrangement of the 
parts of the flower are such that the style and stigma are actually 
embedded for some time in a mass of pollen, so that no one can 
doubt that if self-fertilisation had been the preferable mode it 
might have been obtained with certainty, and with a minimum 
expenditure of force. But instead of this we see a number of 
