Morphology and Biology of Hydnora Africana. 467 



surface of the flower is of a bright fleshy colour. These three white 

 bodies are not mentioned in any existing description of Hydnora, 

 and I think I have found the reason why that is not the case. 



When I made this little discovery by opening a large bud of the 

 plant I was so surprised by the difference in appearance and struc- 

 ture that I analysed a portion of this body. While the entire plant 

 is highly impregnated with tannin, containing almost as much as 

 oak bark, this white substance is like a spongy pudding, not only in 

 appearance but also in taste, containing fat and albuminous matter. 



It occurred to me at the time that this might serve as an attrac- 

 tion to some animal, which in feeding upon these bodies would effect 

 cross-pollination of the plant, but it was, of course, not possible to 

 guess who the visitor might be. However, some friends of mine, 

 among them Mr. Izaac Meiring at Worcester, sent me some more 

 flowers, each one carefully wrapped up in a piece of cotton, and 

 among them I found several which contained a number of black 

 beetles. These have been identified by Mr. Peringuey as Dermestes 

 vulpinus, an insect which is well known to collectors of skins and 

 horns, as the beetle as well as the larva destroys animal specimens if 

 not properly preserved. 



As this beetle lives on carrion and other animal matter, it is 

 evidently attracted by the smell of putrefaction which the white 

 substance emits on decaying. The flower is really a trap for these 

 beetles, for the inner side of each segment is lined with a fringe and 

 covered with bristles which point inwards, allowing the beetles to 

 creep in but preventing them from leaving the flower when their 

 meal is finished. In their endeavour to escape they must neces- 

 sarily crawl over the anthers and stigma, and consequently become 

 covered with the pollen. When at last the flower withers and the 

 bristles shrivel up, the beetles are able to escape and to enter 

 another flower, thereby transporting the pollen from one flower to 

 another and effecting cross-pollination. 



As the anthers are situated above the stigma, self-fertilisation 

 would also take place in case no crossing should have been 

 effected. 



These observations explain why the white bodies have not been 

 described until now, for in the flowers which reached botanists at 

 home these bodies had either been eaten out by insects or they had 

 decayed during the drying of the juicy plant. 



The question arises, which morphological part of the flower has 

 been modified in such a remarkable way ? This question I must 

 leave undecided, for these bodies, which possess the function of 

 nectaries, may be modified petals or staminodes or merely append- 



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