266 Transactions. — Botany. 



scented and produce honey, while the umbels are of large size, much flat- 

 tened on the top, and very conspicuous. 



Angelica gingidinm produces very conspicuous umbels of white, sweet- 

 scented, polygamous flowers, which contain honey. Some are hermaphro- 

 dite, some pistillate, and others only staminate. 



Angelica geniculata, though a much less conspicuous species, and having 

 its flowers in very small umbels, is also polygamous. Most of the flowers 

 in each umbel are hermaphrodite, but a few of the outside ones have stamens 

 only, and these are generally much the most prominent. All have honey on 

 their disc, and are very fragrant. The hermaphrodite flowers of both species 

 are also proterandrous, a character which is rather prevalent throughout the 

 order. I believe that most of our flat-flowered, hermaphrodite Umbelliferas 

 are fertilized by Diptera (and perhaps minute Coleoptera). Sir J. Lubbock 

 has pointed out that flowers which have their honey produced on a flat disc 

 are rarely visited by Lepidoptera, whose long trunks are more suited to 

 flowers with tubes. 



Nat. Ord. Araliace^. 



Stilbocarpa polaris, or a closely-allied species, occurs in Stewart Island, 

 usually within or at the edge of the bush, but at no distance from the sea. 

 The flowers are produced in very large loose umbels, and are tolerably con- 

 spicuous, but have no scent, and little or no honey. They are either hermaph- 

 rodite or unisexual. In the latter case, they can only — to judge from their 

 habitat — be fertilized by insects. The Auckland and Campbell Islands plant 

 appears to be somewhat different, growing in the open, "covering large 

 tracts of ground with huge orbicular masses, very conspicuous from the 

 yellowish -waxy flowers, and black shining fruit." 



The genus Panax is represented by ten species, of which I have only 

 examined three — P. simplex, P. edgerleyi, and P. colensoi. All have green 

 flowers, which are only conspicuous by their umbellate arrangement. All 

 are dioecious or hermaphrodite, but, when the latter, distinctly proterandrous. 

 They are also fragrant, and produce a considerable amount of honey. I 

 have frequently seen large, hau-y, brown Diptera on the flowers of P. colensoi, 

 and think that all the species are entomophilous. 



In like manner Scheffiera digitata produces great umbels of small green 

 flowers, but these are fragrant, and secrete a quantity of honey, and are 

 frequently visited by flies. 



Nat. Ord. Corner. 



This order contains two New Zealand genera, each with two species, 

 but only one of each occurs in Otago. 



Griselinia littoralis, the common broadleaf, has perfectly dioecious flowers, 

 the male and female flowers showing no trace of the organs appertaining to 



