Inaugural Address by the President. 1 9 



It is to this insect industry that we owe the glorious masses 

 of colour in heaths and whins and buttercups, that make the 

 fields so beautiful in spring and summer. 



Several of our native plants, are very curious and of great 

 interest, such as the Cuckoo Pint {Arum maculatum), so 

 conspicuous in the early spring with its curious heated chamber 

 or fly prison, and the spotted orchid {Ophrys maculatd) that has 

 its pollen in two club-like masses called pollinia which have a 

 viscid disk by which they are fastened to the proboscis of the 

 bumble bee when it comes to suck the honey from the flower. 

 The pollinia after being fastened on the proboscis in a vertical 

 position automatically turn to a horizontal position so as to 

 project forward and thus to strike the stigma when the bee 

 visits a fresh flower. Among the interesting foreign plants, is 

 the Marcgravia nepenthotdes, described by Belt in his remarkable 

 book "The Naturalist in Nicaragua." The flowers of this lofty 

 climber are disposed in a circle, hanging downwards, like an 

 inverted candelabrum. From the centre of the circle of flowers 

 is suspended a number of pitcher-like vessels, which when the 

 flowers expand, in February and March, are filled with a 

 sweetish hquid. This liquid attracts insects, and the insects 

 numerous insectiverous birds, including many kinds of humming 

 birds. 



The flowers are so disposed, with the stamens hanging 

 downwards, that the birds, to get at the pitchers, must brush 

 against them, and thus convey the pollen from one plant to 

 another. 



This writer also describes the curious bull's horn thorn. It 

 is a species of acacia, belonging to the section Gummiferce^ 

 growing to the height of fifteen or twenty feet. The branches 

 and trunk are covered with strong curved spines, set in pairs, 

 from which it receives the name of the bull's horn thorn, they 

 having a very strong resemblance to the horns of that quadruped. 



These thorns are hollow, and are tenanted by ants, that make 

 a small hole for their entrance and exit near one end of the 

 thorn, and also burrow through the partition that separates the 

 two horns ; so that the one entrance serves for both. 



