OCTOBER. 



I8 5 



all the others produce one or more naked seeds placed on a 

 swollen peduncle, from which the name of the genus is 

 indeed derived. The miro berry is only the end of a 

 branch swollen up to resemble a succulent fruit, and 

 serving the same purpose namely, to attract birds to 

 the plants so that they may eat and thus disseminate 

 the seeds. 



Before leaving the subject of flowering plants, it may be 

 noted that the large Astelias those handsome flag-leaved 

 plants like New Zealand Flax which grow so commonly 



Linum monogynum. 



on the edge of the bush and which flower about this time 

 of year, exhibit the same peculiarity of structure which 

 has been already referred to. The flowers are hermaphro- 

 dite in structure but are quite dioacious in function. The 

 male flowers have small and imperfect pistils, but these 

 never ripen to berries. The female flowers, also, have 

 stamens, but they are apparently always destitute of 

 pollen. Probably the same thing occurs in the common 

 pink-flowered Mesentbryauthemum or fig-marigold, which 

 grows so commonly on rocks near the sea. Hooker says 



