IN SUM A TEA, 



229 



they have a singular knee extended into a fork-like [tnyection,/, 

 which in the flower lies just hvktw the bright yellow anthers 

 of the short stamens. The lower portion of the loug stameas 

 takes a backward curve from tlie 

 fork carrying the pores of its 

 anthers far from tliose of the 

 short stamens. This arrange- 

 ment is most beautifully adapted, 

 as was first pointed out by Fritai ' * 



iMuiler, for the cross-fertilisation *'wtwER(DiAOftAi{MATio)oFHELAsToifA. 



nf fhf* nknt sEcruts.— ji, i-ktal ; antukk 



U4 (.ue pmul,, , , SHOUT hTAM£i*'S ; /, roRK Ot* 1 ONQ 



The bees invariably made tTAiiisNs; a*, anthkb op i-osia sta- 

 for the bright yellow platform sn^aA oi' pistil ovabv. 

 offered by the bunch of short 



stiimens (perhaps beeause they do not perceive from a distance 

 the pink pistil and long stamens projected against the 

 pink corolla), and invariably received the pistil between their 

 legs, their feet settling also on the adjoiniug fork of the long 

 stiimens. The instant effect of this is to collect the whole 

 of the long stamens into a bnnch, and to depress their anthers 

 downwards and away from the body of the bee, while the 

 stigma of the jiistil (which hangs down close to the pores 

 of the long-stamened anthers) remains in constant contact 

 with its ventral side. At the moment of the bee's depar- 

 tnre, the hooks on its feet, by pulling on the fork of the long 

 stamens, raise their anthers, bringing — now that there is no 

 fear of producing self-fertilisation of the plant— their tips in 

 a collected bunch into contact with its' sides and abdomen. 

 Long after I had made these observations, while working in the 

 laljoratory of the Buitenxorg Gardens, Dr. Bnrck pointed out to 

 me a fact of eonsiderable iniportance which I was able to verify 

 for myself, that there was in very closely allied species of tliis 

 family a great difference in the shape of the pollen of the two 

 forms of anther ; that while pollen of both shapes was found on 

 the pistil, that from the long stamens alone seemed fertile. We 

 could not detect any pollen tubes (which are emitted when the 

 pollen is fecundating the plant) emanating from the pollen of 

 the short-stamened anthers. 



The reason why some organ of a plant or animal has ussumed, 

 as it were, an abnormal form, is not always easy to discover; 



