15- Notes on the Pollination of Flowers in India. — 



Note No. 8, Miscellanea. 



By I. H. Burkill. 



Into my Indian diary many unpublished observations on 

 flower pollination have been written, winch I propose now to 

 set out by way of concluding this series of notes. 1 The dates 

 of the observations and the place will be given in every case 

 that others may test seasonal and climatic departures in the 

 behaviour of both flowers and visitors. 



Birds visiting flowers. 



The late D. D. Cunningham in his "Some Indian Friends 

 and Acquaintances" (London 1903), p. 129, records that the 

 common Honeysucker — Arachnechthra zeylonica — is a frequent 

 visitor in Calcutta to the flower of Hamelia patens, Jacq., 

 going from blossom to blossom, its long bill dusted with the 

 pollen. He repeated this statement in his u Plagues and Pleasures 

 of Life in Bengal ' ' (London, 1907), pp. 23 and 275. In the first 

 book (p. 130), he adds that the birds also visit Haematocephala 

 Hodgsoni, meaning Galliandra haematocephala, Hassk., 2 Hibiscus 

 rosa-sinensis, Linn., and Erythrina, in the second book (p. 275) 

 that they visit Duranta. 



This same little bird has been seen by me also on the 

 flowers of Hibiscus rosa- sinensis, Linn., and on those of Rus- 

 selia juncea, Jacq., at Pusa, Tirhut (3-viii-07). To the latter 

 it paid particular attention. 



Again I have a letter (dated Cawnpur, l-x-07) from Mr. H. 

 Martin Leake, in which he writes that he had frequently seen 

 it on cotton flowers — Gossypium— visiting flower after flower, 



1 Xo. 1. The pollination of Thunbergia grandiflora, Roxb. in Cal- 

 cutta. Journal, ii, 1906, pp. 511-514. 



No. 2. The pollination of Corchorus in Bengal and Assam. Journal, 



ii, 1906, pp. 515-520. 



No. 3> The mechanism of six flowers of the North- West Himalaya. 



Journal, ii, 1906, pp. 521-525. 



No. 4. On cotton in Behar. Journal, in, 1907, pp. 517-526. 



No. 5. Some autumn observations in the Sikkim Himalaya. Journal, 



iv, 1908, pp. 179-195. 



No. 6. The spring flora of the Simla Hills. Journal, iv, 1908, pp. 



197-231. 



No. 7. A few observations made in the Central Provinces and Berar. 

 Journal, vi, 1910, pp. 101-107. 



2 Knuth observed a honey-bird visiting this flower in Java, as well as 

 several large bees and a butterfly (Handbuch der Blutenbiologie, ih\ 

 part 1, p. 352). 



