290 DKECIOUS AND CHAP. VII. 



bore a dozen or two fruits, and the remaining four 

 bushes several dozen; but their number was as nothing 

 compared with those on the female bushes, for a single 

 branch, between two and three feet in length, from 

 one of the latter, yielded more than any one of the 

 hermaphrodite bushes. The difference in the amount 

 of fruit produced by the two sets of bushes is all the 

 more striking, as from the sketches above given it is 

 obvious that the stigmas of the polleniferous flowers can 

 hardly fail to receive their own pollen; whilst the fer- 

 tilisation of the female flowers depends on pollen being 

 brought to them by flies and the smaller Hymenoptera, 

 which are far from being such efficient carriers as bees. 



I now determined to observe more carefully during 

 successive seasons some bushes growing in another 

 place about a mile distant. As the female bushes 

 were so highly productive, I marked only two of them 

 with the letters A and B, and five polleniferous bushes 

 with the letters C to G. I may premise that the 

 year 1865 was highly favourable for the fruiting of all 

 the bushes, especially for the polleniferous ones, some 

 of which were quite barren except under such favour- 

 able conditions. The season of 1864 was unfavourable. 

 In 1863 the female A produced " some fruit; " in 1864 

 only 9; and in 1865, 97 fruit. The female B in 1863 

 was "covered with fruit;" in 1864 it bore 28; and in 

 1865 "innumerable very fine fruits." I may add 

 that three other female trees growing close by were 

 observed, but only during 1863, and they then bore 

 abundantly. With respect to the polleniferous bushes, 

 the one marked C did not bear a single fruit during 

 the years 1863 and 1864, but during 1865 it produced 

 no less than 92 fruit, which, however, were very poor. 

 I selected one of the finest branches with 15 fruit, and 

 these contained 20 seeds, or on an average 1.33 per 



