54 



DOMESTIC BOTANY. 



envelope. Similar instances in other plants have been 

 recorded, and as the subject is of horticultural interest, it 

 will be curious if it should be discovered that our good 

 or indifferent crops of fruit are partly due to conditions 

 favourable or unfavourable to the interchange of pollen 

 in flowers. 



In whatever way fertilization may be performed, it is 

 generally understood that no perfect seed can be produced 

 without the action of pollen, of which Aucuha japonica 

 affords a recent and striking example. This beautiful 

 shrub has been grown in this country for above eighty 

 years, and all being female plants, no fruit ever was pro- 

 duced until 1863, when the male plant was introduced, 

 and plants are now to be seen bearing abundance of 

 beautiful red berries. But there is no rule without an 

 exception, as several plants are recorded as producing 

 perfect seeds without the intervention of pollen. The 

 most remarkable instance of this is a holly-like leaved 

 plant, native of Queensland, plants of which were intro- 

 duced at Kew about forty years ago. They proved to 

 be (three) female plants, belonging to the spurge family, 

 and produced perfect seeds, from which young plants 

 were raised similar to their parent. In 1838 I named 

 this plant Coelebogyne ilicifolia, and a description with 

 a figure having been published in the Transactions of the 

 Linnean Society, it became an object of interest and 

 discussion with the botanists of Europe, much having 

 been written on the subject ; up to the present time 

 all the plants in Europe continue to maintain their uni- 

 sexual character, and no explanation has yet appeared 

 to account for this deviation from the law of sexuality. 

 Plants of it have recently been discovered in Queensland 

 bearing abundance of male flowers, but this fact in no 



