IN CEYLON. 77 . 



flowers of the same species, and it is only by actual obser- ' 

 vation of fresh material in the forest that the true sex has , 

 been determined. It has been the common experience of 

 myself and many others to regard trees of D. sylvatica and 

 D. Gardneri as males, until they have been felled, when in 

 addition to flowers possessing fertile stamens, abundance of 

 ripe fruits have been obtained on the same branch. In order 

 to further emphasize this condition I may say that the 

 whole of the anatomy and development of seedlings of D. 

 syjvatica, to be published elsewhere, was first worked out 

 from seeds obtained from a tree which has for many years 

 been labelled as a " male," and from which material for 

 sketching the " male " inflorescence has been derived. 



From the following notes it will be seen th'at examination 

 of fresh material in the forest has shown that there is a 

 departure from the dioecious condition in ten out of our 

 twenty species. Speaking generally, the sex appears to be 

 very unstable, the dioecious, monoecious, polygamous, and 

 hermaphrodite conditions having been found. The occur- 

 rence of hermaphrodite flowers resulting in a polygamous 

 condition is so frequent that there is every reason to doubt 

 their non-existence in any of the Ceylon species, providing 

 sufficient material can be examined outside the herbarium. 



It may be further stated that specimens of D. Thwaitesii 

 have been repeatedly examined, which suggested that the 

 sex of the flower might vary from time to time ; this has 

 been described for other plants.* Certain it is that the sex 

 of the flower often exhibits every variation in the same 

 inflorescence of JX ^yjjratica, and the many stages observed 

 readily allow one to form a series having staminate flowers 

 at one end and hermaphrodite at the other. 



The types of flowers characteristic for the different Ceylon 

 species may now be described under the following headings : 

 (a) dioecious only, (&) monoecious only, (c) dioecious and 

 polygamous, and (d) dioecious, monoecious, and polygamous. 



* Willis, Gynodicecism, &c. (3rd paper); Proc. Camb. Phil. Soc., 1893. 



