FERTILISATION OF SOME NORTH AUSTRALIAN PLANTS, 567 
ScaEvota Kornrai, Vahl. 
If a flower bud is cut open and examined the indusium will be 
noticed in the shape of a cup with fringed edges, above the im- 
mature anthers which, however, growing more rapidly than the 
pistil, soon overtop the indusium and appear round it with the 
pollen agglomerating into a mass which of its own weight falls 
into the indusium, or is caught by it in its upward growth brush- 
ing past the anthers. The sides of the indusium now contract and 
flatten, and the indusium curves over the passage to the nectar, 
and is in appearance just like a flat brush held over the passage, 
and which, if brushed against by an insect, deposits pollen on its 
back, the pollen being gradually pushed out to the fringing hairs 
by the growing stigma. The stigma eventually grows through the 
brushlike fringe, and is ready to take off pollen from the back of 
insects visiting the flower. As in the case of Grevillea chrysoden- 
dron the ancestral form of the order seems to have derived the 
indusium with the deposited pollen for the purpose of insuring 
self-fertilisation, if it failed to be fertilised by an insect visiting it 
with pollen from another flower ; moreover the pollen also would 
be safe from pilferers. 
GOODENIA PURPURASCENS, R. Brown. 
The description of the fertilisation of Scaevola Keenigii applies 
perfectly to this species, with the exception that only the lower lip 
of the indusium bears a fringe of hairs, and that the indusium is 
concealed from view by two of the petals when the flower is open. 
STyYLIDIUM. 
I have been able to examine three or four unidentified species of 
this curious genus. In all these the column bearing the stamens 
and stigma is sensitive and curved back above the passage to the 
nectary. The stamens appear first at the head of the column, and 
later on the stigma takes their place. An insect, in proceeding 
to the nectary, must touch against the lower part of the column, 
which rapidly springs forward, and, with the upper portion bearing 
either the stamens or stigma, strikes the insect on the back, at 
the same time closing the passage to the nectary. The act of 
striking the insect with the head of the column either leaves a 
deposit of pollen on its back or else takes up what pollen it had 
there from another flower, as the case may be, dependent upon the 
organ that is in evidence at the time. After a short period the 
column is gradually brought back to its original position, and, as 
it were, the gun is ready cocked for another visitor. The process 
is a beautiful one to watch and exact in its purpose, and, as in 
the case of Goodenoviw, may have been evolved to save the 
