^64 Transactions. — Botany. 



The other form of flower is much smaller, seldom exceedmg five-eighths 

 of an inch in length, pale green and pink in colour, and "with very short 

 stamens furnished with abortive anthers, which contain no pollen. These 

 flowers, though hermaphrodite in structure, are pistillate in function, and 

 may often be seen with their stigmas smeared with the blue pollen of the 

 larger form. 



In the "Handbook of the N.Z. Flora," p. 728, the length of the 

 stamens has been taken as a character separating F. procumbens from the 

 other two, the latter having the stamens as long as or longer than the 

 calyx-lobes, and F. ■procumbens having them shorter. I have, however, 

 repeatedly found true F. excorticata with both forms of flowers, and F. pro- 

 cumbens also with both, and this is one of my chief objections to admitting 

 the validity of the three species. 



Both forms of flowers are scentless, but produce a large quantity of 

 honey within the calyx-tube. They appear to be fertilized only by tuis 

 and honey-birds. As in the case of the other plants frequented by 

 these birds, viz., Clianthus, Sopliora, and Metrosideros lucida, the Fuchsia 

 flowers are pendulous, affording no resting place for insects, while the 

 great quantity of honey secreted would drown any but a large form fur- 

 nished with a long trunk. 



I believe that the dimorphism manifested by our Fuchsias is a modifica- 

 tion tending in the direction of separation of the sexes, and which would 

 ultimately lead to the production of dioecious plants. This is remarkable, 

 as occurring in an order characterized among other marks by the hermaph- 

 roditism of its flowers. Probably the polygamy already noticed as occur- 

 ring in Leptospennum scoparium among the Myrtaceae is a further develop- 

 ment of the same tendency. 



The genus Ejnlobium is credited in the " Handbook of the N.Z. Flora " 

 with seventeen sj)ecies (or, as they might more correctly be called, varieties of 

 about ten or twelve tolerably distinct forms). It is one of those remarkable 

 genera probably undergoing rapid modification and development at the 

 present time, in which the variety of form is so great that it becomes 

 impossible to define the species with any accuracy. The various forms range 

 from minute-flowered like E. nummulari/olium var. brevipes to the large 

 handsome-flowered E. pallidiflorum. All are strictly hermaphrodite, and I 

 have not been able to notice any very appreciable difference in time between 

 the maturing of the stamens and pistil. They all seem to be self-fertilized, 

 though the finer-flowered forms are probably largely aided and crossed by 

 insects. I have grown E. nummulari/olium and E pubens, and carefully 

 isolated them under glasses when about to flower, so that all access of 

 insects or of mnd was prevented, and they have produced a vast number of 



