6 



attacked by it in December commenced to show signs of damage 

 by the lower leaves wilting and falling off. The roots were mostly 

 destroyed and the stem at the base discoloured and decaying. It 

 was removed, and the stem some six feet tall cut into cuttings which 

 commenced to grow. I have failed to obtain the fruit of this 

 fungus. 



A good many plants from foreign countries flower regularly, but 

 fail to set fruit. This may be due to a variety of causes. It is 

 very common to find plants which flower heavily, and do not fruit 

 at first because they are passed over and not visited by any insects. 

 Fertilizing insects seem often to take some years before they find 

 out and visit even conspicuous flowers. I have never seen an insect 

 visit Spathodea nilotica or Eucharis Amazonica nor Vanilla plani- 

 folia, nor any of these plants to produce fruit. Yet many exotics 

 are immediately visited by insects which can never have seen them 

 before, and speedily fertilized, etfen although they are apparently 

 more or less adapted for fertilization by other insects. Solatium 

 maroniense, is a shrub or small tree commonly cultivated but which 

 has never so far as I know been seen to fruit in the Botanic Gardens. 

 I have seen, however, a big shrub of it at Perhentian Tinggi in Negri 

 Sembilan, originally from the stock of the plant in the Botanic 

 Gardens in Singapore loaHed with fruit. I believe the plant is 

 visited by one of the Acherontias, Death's Head moths, the larvae of 

 which feeds on the leaves, and which is abundant in Singapore. 



In some tubular flowers such as Ipomea arborea {I. carnea) and 

 Bignonia magnifica^ large Humble-bees {Xylocopa) constantly visit 

 the flowers, and obtained the honey by cutting through the base of 

 the tube without attempting to enter the mouth of the flower and so 

 fertilizing it. These plants have never set fruit. 



It is possible that many of these exotics do not produce honey in 

 their nectaries and so hold out no inducement to insects to visit 

 them. The Honeysuckles, of which two species are cultivated here, 

 (Lonicera) are, however, constantly visited by Sphingidos, which so 

 appreciate them that I have several times seen Sphinx Convolvuli dart 

 into the house and carefully suck every flower of a bunch of honey- 

 suckle in a vase on the table. Yet though probably every flower in 

 the garden is visited by one or more hawk moths, the plant has 

 never yet produced a single fruit. 



In some cases certainly a flower fails to produce pollen, the 

 anthers never dehiscing, or the pollen may be destroyed by a fall 

 of rain. It is also occasionally at least, destroyed by the pollen- 

 seeking insects which remove it before it can be applied to the 

 stigma. Clerodendron Macrosiphon , a native of Eastern Africa 

 has white long-tubed flowers, with long projecting stamens, and 

 style, and is evidently intended for fertilization by a hawk-moth. 

 The flowers are of short duration, and open early in the day, for a 

 nocturnal flower. They are quickly visited by the small bee Trigona, 

 known ru-re as Kelulut, which carefully collects all the pollen from 

 the projecting anthers, and effectually prevents the plant from 



