The Arctotis. 293 



planted in a mixture of peat and loam, and flowers from May 

 to July. 



The Botanical Register gives the following curious account 

 of the remarkable method in which the ray florets of these 

 flowers are fertilized : — " On a bright, warm day, under the 

 shelter of a green-house, the stigmas of the various florets may 

 be perceived to emerge from within the tube of the concealed 

 anthers, carrying up the pollen parted with to them by these 

 organs, and which is seen to adhere in a thick coat of yellow 

 powder, to afford it from this new position the means of an 

 access necessary to the otherwise unprovided stigmas of the 

 surrounding ray, a task to which the proper organ is here evi- 

 dently incompetent. By and by the stigmas are seen to retreat 

 gradually within the cavity of the now empty anthers. When 

 recently emerged and charged with pollen, they bend and 

 incline themselves with a lively motion on the slightest touch, 

 but always in the direction whence the impulse came ; and, in 

 so doing, necessarily part with a portion of the pollen which 

 covers them. And as the honeyed liquid which attracts insects 

 to the flower, is deposited in the ray which surrounds the 

 disk, the impulse will be the more certainly given by that 

 means, from the side towards which it is requisite that the pol- 

 len should be carried. The style, by the extension and con- 

 traction of which the stigma is made to advance and withdraw, 

 seems to consist of a substance resembling elastic gum (caout- 

 chouc), and like that substance may be repeatedly drawn out 

 to a considerable extent, contracting to its former dimensions 

 when left to itself, with the same elastic force." 



