69 



watched long and carefully. I have found Eucalypts troublesome to observe, and I regard my present 

 knowledge of their flower biology as very incomplete. Yet, what I have so far seen has impressed upon 

 me the belief that birds are the chief pollinators of the genus. The small size of some of the flowers at 

 first led me to regard them as entomophilous, but I am now satisfied that birds could and would take 

 nectar from the smallest, and in so doing would almost certainly effect pollination. (0. H. Sargent in 

 " Annals of Botany," vol. xxxii, pp. 217-218, 1918.) 



The zoologist, W. Sharpe Macleay, early in the last century, remarked (Woolls, 

 " A Contribution to the Flora of Australia," 1867, p. 219) " that parrots and other 

 birds occasionally bite off the flower buds, and may accidentally uncover a stigma 

 and remove the anthers ; and, again, insects may then finish off their work and carry 

 pollen across from another species." 



After consultuation with Mr. J. J. Fletcher, editor of the Macleay Memorial 

 Volume (Linnean Society of New South Wales, 1893), which contains an account of 

 Mr. W. Sharpe Macleay's work, and careful search by him of the latter's papers, he says 

 that he is satisfied that Mr. Macleay's observation, to which Rev, Dr. Woolls refers, 

 was contained in a private letter or a verbal communication. 



The Australian Museum Catalogue of birds (A. J. North) dealing with the 

 MeliphagidcB, and the Brush-tongued Lorikeets, give lists of honey-eating birds so far 

 as Australian species are concerned. 



A list of Australian insects found on Angophora cordifolia during December, 

 1912, at Como, will be found in Aust. Naturalist, vol. iii, p. 18(1914). They may be 

 captured on Eucalyptus also. A list of honey-eating insects of Australia would com- 

 prise approximately half the described species. Reference may also be made to the 

 insects which frequent Eucalyptus in Parts 65 . and 66 of my " Forest Flora of New 

 South Wales." 



A. G. Hamilton makes the following observation, and I think it is concurred 

 in by the majority of Australian observers :— 



I do not think that there is any foundation for the opinion that Eucalypt-flowers are fertilised in 

 the bud. They are conspicuous flowers when open, scented, and contain a large amount of nectar, all 

 of which would point to pollination by insects or birds, (ib. xli, p. 26.) 



Anyone who will examine a number of Eucalyptus flowers of any species freshly 

 opened will see that in the vast majority the stigma is quite free and clear of any pollen, 

 while all the anther cells (the pollen vessels) are still closed, so much so that one often 

 has to look for other flowers in order to find out the anther group to which these 

 particular anthers belong. A number have the filaments so much incurved when the 

 flowers open, that it is practically impossible in that position for the anthers to come 

 into contact with the stigma, and even if they did, it would not cause fertilisation 

 at that stage, since the pollen is still enclosed, and it is the free pollen, and not the anthers 

 that ensure fertilisation. So much is clear to my mind; the proof some require is as 

 to whether fertilisation takes place before the throwing off of the operculum. I 

 doubt it. 



