CHAP. VII. POLYGAMOUS PLANTS. 289 



fertilise effectually female bushes growing at a dis- 

 tance of even 30 yards from any polleniferous bush. 



The small anthers borne by the short stamens of 

 the female flowers are well formed and dehisce pro- 

 perly, but I could never find in them a single grain 

 of pollen. It is somewhat difficult to compare the 

 length of the pistils in the two forms, as they vary 

 somewhat in this respect and continue to grow after 

 the anthers are mature. The pistils, therefore, in old 

 flowers on a polleniferous plant are often of consider- 

 ably greater length than in young flowers on a female 

 plant. On this account the pistils from five flowers 

 from so many hermaphrodite or male bushes were 

 compared with those from five female bushes, before 

 the anthers had dehisced and whilst the rudimentary 

 ones were of a pink colour and not at all shrivelled. 

 These two sets of pistils did not differ in length, or if 

 there was any difference those of the polleniferous 

 flowers were rather the longest. In one hermaphrodite 

 plant, which produced during three years very few 

 and poor fruit, the pistil much exceeded in length 

 the stamens bearing perfect and as yet closed an- 

 thers; and I never saw such a case on any female 

 plant. It is a surprising fact that the pistil in the 

 male and in the semi-sterile hermaphrodite flowers 

 has not been reduced in length, seeing that it per- 

 forms very poorly or not at all its proper function. 

 The stigmas in the two forms are exactly alike ; and 

 in some of the polleniferous plants which never pro- 

 duced any fruit I found that the surface of the stigma 

 was viscid, so that pollen-grains adhered to it and had 

 exserted their tubes. The ovules are of equal size 

 in the two forms. Therefore the most acute botanist, 

 judging only by structure, would never have suspected 



