246 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.S., XII, 



stamens which they draw together, and having settled, as there 

 is no honey, they collect pollen. The Cassias do not possess 

 any hollows which promise honey, but Melastoma malabathri- 

 cum possesses ten short dry tubes round the ovary in which 

 the visiting bees may at times seek honey. On the other hand 



the Cassias have extrafloral nectaries which will be referred to 

 again at a later place. 



Both Cassias and Melastomas have received a considerable 

 amount of attention from botanists who have visited the Dutch 

 Indies. All unite in recognising the genera as containing 

 specialised bee-flowers. Knuth, who particularly studied them 

 (vide his Handbuch der Bliitenbiologie, the posthumous volume 

 m, compiled by E. Loew, part 1, pp. 369-386) recorded that in 

 the Buitenzorg Gardens, Xylocopas are the fertilising agents of 



t wo kindst7 llr^ oi J Ie 1 laatom( i m ^^thrict l m, Nat. size, showing the 

 kinds of stamens, the longer five of which serve as a landing plfee. 



other 



W Z0 IT S ™ d , M T chUe W°* ita . Burck (Annales du 

 •Jardin Botamque de Buitenzorg, VJ , 1887, pp. 256-265) and 

 Mrs N.euwenhuis von Uexkull have made similar observations 

 in the same Garden. 



Forbes in 1888 (Nature, xxvi, p. 536, quoted from Kunth, 



i. c., p. ndoL named Yul^r^.. . _• -^ . ,» , . 



Melastoma 



wfaantiTi "'^"^raiist s Wanderings in the Eastern < 



five^on?'' ? V,f' 228) SayS that Bombus ™ nex 

 observed ona pmk Melastoma in the Mountains of P 



was 



■oJSSS!! Z are eommon on the flower of Melastoma 

 ™l*bathr cam in Tenasserim, collecting pollen (Moulmein. 27- 



tmtd wl I p1 ; /u m ler3t> I 1 and 16 - iH -° 8 ) a ^d once another 



7ilz^ ( ^r P i iiM)8) - The flowers op™ at about 



