Vol. Ill, No. 7,] Pollination of F lowers in hidia, 523. 



[N.8.'] 



mridissima atid Halicttis senescens. The Elis crawls into th^ flowet 

 settling at times on the petals, at times on the sexual organs ; and 

 going straight to the bottom of the flower it strives hard to get 

 the honey ; failing, it may crawl to the extrafloral nectaries. At 

 times it crawls inside the flower after having: visited the extra- 

 floral nectaries. One individual which I observed for some little* 

 time habitually settled as if intending to go into the flower, and 

 then turning round went to the extrafloral nectaries and visited 

 all three in turn. The female of Elis thoracica was mucli more 

 abundant on the cotton flowers than the male. 



Ceratina viridissima goes to the honey passages of cotton 

 with a remarkable persistence : but its efEorts arc apparently un- 

 rewarded. It' is easy to imprison the insect between the thumb' 

 and finger, when it is at the base of the flower ; so intent is it 

 on trying to get the honey. Halictus senescens behaves in a 

 similar way^ but does not so persistently seek honey, . . 



Of pollen-collecting insects, Halictus senescena is important. 

 It was found to be a common insect at every place visited, and 

 was seen in flowers Opuntia Dillenii as well as in cotton flowers. 

 On the cotton it tries often to get honey before it turns its attention 

 to the collecting of pollen. Of whatever cross-pollination is effect- 

 ed, it probably does the greater part ; but its methods are such' 

 as to lead to more self-pollination than cross-pollination. Once it 

 was observed to creep to the extrafloral nectaries after it had 

 failed to get honey within the flower, ^pis indica and Ajpis jlorea 

 at times collected pollen. .... / 



None of the other insects in the list can be of any importance 

 to the plants as cross-pollinating agents. I have tried, very 

 crudely I fear, to assess the importance of those that are. And 

 I think that under the conditions seen by me it is impossible for 

 more than 1 per cent, of the flowers to be cross-pollinated. -The 

 insect agency is therefore of small account. * 



! Gammie (The Indian cottons, Calcutta [1906], p. 1) is inclined 

 to think that in the west of India where the cotton crops 

 flower towards the end of the year, cross-pollination is very rare 

 indeed, I have had a few opportunities of observing cotton flowers 

 there, and once only have I seen an insect to visit them ; it was a 

 Sphingid moth, and it visited flowers towards dusk at Surat 

 (27-X-02). About Poona I have seen Api? Uorea diligently visit- 

 ing the extrafloral nectaries, but never entering the flower (16-l&r 

 xii-03). It would seem that at Poona, where Gammie's observa- 

 tions were made, natural cross-pollination of cotton is even more 

 rare than in Behar, and the production of natural hybrids very 

 rare indeed. Gammie says that he could detect no natural 

 hybrids in the thousands of plants which he grew for observa- 

 tion : though their parents matured together ^n contiguous lines, 

 upon the experimental plots, they wer^e not produced. On the 

 other hand Prof. T. H. Middleton (The Agricultural Ledger, no. 8 

 of 1895, p. 10) says that Bhogila, ie. {Oossypium ne^lectum) 

 seems to hybridise in nature with Deshi {Gossypium interme- 

 dium)^ for intermediates sprung up^ at Baroda in his expei:im^nta\; 



