8. Notes on the Pollination of Flowers in India. Note 



No. 7. A few observations made in the Central Prov- 

 inces and Berar. 



Bv I. H. Btjrkill. 



The following observations were made on tours in the Cen- 

 tral Provinces and Berar, in 1908 and 1909- The first of the 

 tours comprised a visit to the hill of Asirgarh in Nimar (26-28. 

 ix. 08) and a journey by road from Ellichpur over the Satpu- 

 ras through the forests of the Melghat to Lewada where the 

 Sipna valley opens towards the river Tapti, (3-19. x. 09): the 

 second comprised a visit to Nagpur (14-22. ii # 09) and the third 

 an excursion into the Melghat from Akot, along the Ban valley 

 and to Jalgaon in the Buldana district (16—26. ix. 09). The 

 weather during the last tour was unsettled. ■ 



The notes are fragmentary; but years may pass before 

 an opportunity occurs for making them more complete. The 

 chief point in them is connected with the cotton plant, — chief, 

 because for those who are trying to breed out of our cottons im- 

 proved races, it is essential to recognise the extent of that cross- 

 pollination in the field which will level down what they are 

 raising up. 



The insects have been determined for me by Messrs. H. 

 Maxwell-Lefroy, E. Brunetti and C. A. Paiva, to whom I offer 

 Ay best thanks. 



A Bee as a regular visitor to Cotton flowers, and some other 



visitors. 



There is evidence that in the Ganges valley, the races of 

 cotton, when growjn mixed, are crossed naturally with some 

 freedom. The literature is in three places. Firstly, in the Agri- 

 cultural Ledger No. 8 of 1895, p. 10, Professor T. H. Middle- 

 ton set forward his belief that seed of the Behar cottons — 

 ' Bhogila ' and ' Deshi '—gave rise to hybrids in his experimen- 

 tal plot at Baroda. Secondly, in this journal for 1907, pp. 517- 

 526, I called attention to the insects which visit cotton flowers 

 in Behar in May and to the presence of apparent hybrids in 

 the crops there. Thirdly, Mr. Martin Leake (this Journal, 1908. 

 p. 18) felt himself justified in saying that indirect evidence 

 exists in abundance for regarding the crossing of cottons in 

 nature as of common occurrence : and he recorded a few obser- 

 vations made by himself on the variability of progeny from 

 seed collected when precautions were not taken to prevent 



natural crossing. 



Fyson (Memoirs Dept. Agric. ii, no. 6) has more recently 



