446 



HUTCHINSON'S POPULAR BOTANY 



as I believe, a Cassia. I have been assured that at the Cape of Good Hope, 

 Strelitzia is fertilized by the Nectarinidse [the Sun-birds]. There can hardly 

 be a doubt that many Australian flowers are fertilized by the many honey- 

 sucking birds of that country. Mr. Wallace remarks that he has ' often 

 observed the beaks and faces of the brush-tongued lories of the Moluccas 

 covered with pollen.' In New Zealand, many specimens of the Anthornis 



melanura had their heads 

 covered with pollen from 

 the flowers of an endemic 

 species of Fuchsia." 



A later observer. Pro- 

 fessor W. Trelease. of the 

 Missouri Botanical Garden, 

 gives a yet longer list, and 

 states that an Alabama 

 planter once laughingly said 

 to him: " You'll have to note 

 every conspicuous flower if 

 you want a full list of those 

 visited by the humming- 

 birds." On several occa- 

 sions the professor watched 

 the ruby-throated hum- 

 ming-bird extracting nectar 

 from the glands at the base 



L_ I // I f.y jfefc^M; ^ ^ ie i nv l ucre in cotton- 



flowers (Gossypiuiri) ; and he 

 found that humming-birds 

 were largely it' not exclu- 

 sivelyused in the crossing 

 of Malvaviscus, a scarlet- 

 flowering genus of tropical 

 shrubs. 



The observations of a 

 still younger botanist, Mr. 

 William Sugden, of Michi- 

 gan, are equally worthy of 

 attention. Mr. Sugden tied 

 bags over the flower-buds of Impatiens fulva, and also over flowers which 

 had opened, but before the stamens (whose anthers in the first stage form 

 a covering over the pistil) had disappeared. In neither case were good 

 seeds produced, though artificial crossing under similar conditions was suc- 

 cessful. Flowers of the same species, unconfined in this manner, but 

 divested of their petals, set no seed whatever; and this was also the result 



Ptio'o 6y] [E. Step. 



FIG. 550. WHITE CAMPION (Lychnis vespertina). 



Its white flowers open in the evening, when it becomes sweet-scented for the 



attraction of night-Hying moths. Nectar is secreted by the base of the 



ovary. In the daytime the flowers look faded or dead. 



