Albuca corymbosa and iunciiolia. to Insect Fertilisation. 367 



inner segments, so that, if these be forced backwards, they 

 carry the stamens with them. Afterwards the anthers 

 (which deliisce introrsely) become free, owing to the more 

 rapid growth of the inner perianth segments; but as they 

 still lie against the inner faces of the segments, they are 

 never in contact with the stigma. The flowers are faintly 

 and sweetly scented. 



Before the writer's experiments were commenced, he 

 noticed a hive-bee attempt to reach the nectary of an 

 Albuca flower. It first tried to penetrate to it by the 

 openings between the inner segments, and failed. Speedily 

 it discovered the right route. By pushing its head into 

 the cavity formed by the apices of the inner segments, one 

 of these yielded, and the bee entered readily, and was 

 almost completely hidden. It is to be noted that, when a 

 segment is pushed back, the stamen in front of it follows, 

 and allows an insect to pass underneath the anther; the 

 bee therefore emerged, thickly dusted with pollen about 

 the head and back. On reaching another flower, it went 

 at once to the right entrance. Unfortunately, the two 

 flowers visited by the bee were not marked. The hive-bee 

 seems to be about the size of insect fitted to fertilise this 

 Albuca. The pollen carried on the insect's head will come 

 into direct contact with the stigma of the next flower 

 visited, especially if the latter is provided with the central 

 prominence. The pollen on th6 insect's back will be de- 

 posited on the papillose area of the inner segments, which, 

 on returning to their natural position, may convey it to the 

 stigma. It must, however, be pointed out that, by the 

 latter method, the carried pollen may be mixed with the 

 pollen left by the insect in its retreat from the flower 

 which is being visited. 



With the view of demonstrating the adaptation of the 

 flowers to cross-fertilisation, many experiments were made, 

 the results of which are given in the table on next page. 



It will be observed that the averages are unfair as regards 

 exact comparison, inasmuch as the number of flowers used 

 in the difi'erent series vary. The most unlooked-for case is 

 in Series I., viz., the appearance of a fine capsule of perfect 

 seed as the result of self-fertilisation with presumably inferior 

 pollen. In face of the fact that the other two flowers 

 treated in the same manner were not fertilised, and that no 



