854 Transactions. — Botany. 
some little interest for those naturalists engaged in the study of the varied 
modes of fertilization in use among plants, I have drawn up the following 
notes on the subject. 
Glossostigma elatinoides is a small, creeping, intricately branched moss- 
like plant, generally found in wet swamps, or by the margins of lakes and 
ponds, often growing entirely submerged. The flowers, which are axillary 
on short peduncles, are very minute, hardly exceeding à inch in diameter. 
The corolla has a short tube and five nearly equal spreading lobes ; the two 
upper, however, are rather smaller and more closely united than the lower. 
The margins of all the lobes are fringed with numerous minute cilie, and 
the cellular tissue throughout is unusually lax. The stamens are four in 
number, two long and two short, the anthers being approximated in pairs, 
one above the other, as in so many of the Scrophularinee. The style is 
about the same length as the corolla. At the base it is nearly cylindrical, 
and very slender, but above the middle it expands into a broad and thin 
spoon-shaped lamina, the anterior surface of which is quite smooth and 
plane, but the back covered with delicate clavate papille pointing upwards 
towarcs the summit of the style. 
On examining a recently expanded flower, it will be observed that the 
broad end of the style is abruptly doubled over towards the front of the 
flower, thus covering the stamens and entirely concealing them from view. 
If the point of a needle, or stiff bristle, be inserted into the corolla, and the 
front of the stigma lightly touched, it at once springs up and uncovers the 
stamens, moving back to the upper lip of the flower, to which it becomes 
so closely applied that it is difficult to distinguish it from the corolla 
without the use of a lens. After a short time the style gradually moves 
inwards, and ultimately bends over the stamens as at first. With the view 
of ascertaining the time which elapses before the stigma resumes its normal 
position, I made the following experiment. At 9 a.m. I touched the 
stigmas of seven flowers, causing them to uncover the stamens and occu y 
their position at the back of the flower. At 9:129 one of the styles had 
commenced to move inwards; at 9:15 all had advanced a eonsiderable 
distance; at 9-20 five out of the seven covered the anthers as closely as at 
first; at 9°25 the whole of the seven had resumed their original position. 
Further experiment also showed that the stigmas may be repeatedly touched, 
but always retain their sensitiveness until the flower commences to wither, 
It cannot be doubted that this irritability of the style is connected with 
the fertilization of the ;plant—in fact, that it is solely a contrivance to 
secure cross-fertilization possibly so arranged that if the flower is not visited 
by insects self-fertilization is not prevented. Let an insect crawl into the 
flower, or let a larger one insert its proboscis; it would be difficult for either 
