174 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 
I am not fully acquainted, but in neither species do we find 
modifications of structure so remarkable as those described by 
Mr. Bentham among the Australian forms, and probably both 
agree in possessing a comparatively simple mode of fertilisa- 
tion. 
The curious inflorescence of Kuightia is familiar to most 
settlers in the northern portion of the Colony. The flowers, 
which are of a bright red-brown colour, and very conspicuous, 
are arranged in pairs on stout lateral racemes, 2 to 4 inches long, 
each raceme containing from 40 to 80 flowers, or even more. 
Before expansion the perianth is cylindrical in shape, slightly 
swollen at the base, and then contracted, but again gradually 
thickened toward the extremity. It is about 1% inch long, and 
is externally everywhere covered with a dense velvety tomentum. 
In the young bud there is no appearance of segments, but some 
time before expansion the top of the tube splits into four minute 
teeth, the apex of the style showing between. Later on the seg- 
ments come apart at the base of the perianth, and by degrees 
the separation extends higher up. For a long time, however, 
they firmly cohere in the upper swollen part of the tube, and the 
final separation always takes place suddenly and elastically, the 
four segments each coiling up into a tight spiral band, which is — 
packed away at the very base of the flower. The fully matured _ 
racemes show, therefore, little more than a brush of long styles 
projecting from a mass of twisted perianth-segments, and present 
a very different appearance to those in the bud state, so much so 
that I have had both brought to me as the flowers of two distinct 
plants! The anthers are four in number, sessile towards the top 
of the perianth lobes, and in the bud form a ring round the 
upper part of the style, to which they are closely applied. The 
style is over an inch in length, rather slender at the base, but 
much swollen in its upper half, forming a lengthened club-shaped 
termination usually considered as the stigma; but the true 
stigmatic surface appears to be minute, and situated in a little 
depression towards the summit. At the base of the flower are 
four rounded glands, secreting an abundance of nectar, which 
slowly exudes from them, and usually surrounds the base of the 
ovary. The flowers have a strong and very peculiar odour,a ~ 
single raceme being quite sufficient to unpleasantly scent a close ~ 
room. 
If a flower bud is examined just prior to expansion, it will 
be noticed that the anthers have opened down their inner face ~ 
and deposited the whole of their pollen on the moist surface of 
the thickened portion of the style, on which it forms four little 
ridges. After the opening of the flower and coiling up of the 
perianth-segments, the pollen is thus left exposed on the surface 
of the style. This looks like a simple case of self-fertilisation, but 
a little examination proves that the stigmatic surface is not — 
mature until some time after the flowers open, and that before it — 
is in a receptive condition the pollen has all been removed. Some — 
means must therefore exist by which the pollen is regularly 
