SEPTEMBER. 159 



visiting flowers they will be seen to enter several blossoms 

 in 10 seconds ; but flies, which probably do the work here, 

 are much slower in their movements, and hence probably 

 the time is quite sufficient. 



It is one of the puzzles to students of New Zealand botany 

 why so many of the indigenous flowers of these islands are 

 imperfect. There are very many which exhibit complete 

 separation of the reproductive whorls, while in others, where 

 there is not this complete separation, yet there appear to 

 be physiological barriers which are quite as effective. For 

 example, the Fuchsia, which is coming freely into flower 

 this month, shows two (sometimes three) distinct kinds of 

 flowers. The large common form has flowers of an inch or 

 more in length, and these have all the parts present eight 

 stamens with well-developed anthers full of blue pollen, 

 and a large very viscid stigma to which these pollen grains 

 adhere. Whether these flowers can be fertilised with their 

 own pollen or not I do not know. The only way to 

 ascertain the fact would be to experiment upon them, and 

 I do not think this has ever been done. But besides these 

 flowers others will be found, on different plants however, 

 which are not half as big ; they are pale and pink in colour, 

 while their anthers are small and nearly white and contain 

 no pollen. Functionally these flowers are pistillate or 

 female, though the parts of the staminal whorl are all 

 present, and certainly they cannot bear fruit unless pollen 

 is brought to them from the other kind. This could also, 

 of course, be proved experimentally : it only wants a little 

 time and trouble to do it. 



The why and the wherefore of this sexual separation has 

 not been explained yet. Our two common kinds of mapau 

 (Pittosporum eugenioldes and P. tenuifolium) are to be 

 found in flower this month. The former, or white mapau, 

 has fragrant yellowish flowers in conspicuous clusters, and 

 in between the bases of the stamens and the ovary there 

 are little beads of nectar, so that the blossoms are evidently 

 meant for insect visitation. In the northern parts of New 



