A Diplostigmatic Plant. 
313 
Recently, however, I had, in connection with some other work, to study 
these plants again, and found in the course of this research that some 
pollen grains had germinated on this papillose surface. By staining the 
style with magenta, &c., one can find numerous pollen-tubes in the tissue 
of the style, below the swollen part as well as above it ; hence their 
presence in the lower portion of the style would not necessarily prove, 
that they came from the swollen portion, as they may just as well have 
descended from the terminal stigma. Owing to lack of time I have not been 
able to actually trace the tubes from the grains down through the style 
into the ovary, but I have seen some enter the style at the swollen portion, 
hence the function of this latter organ is fairly clear. It is a secondary 
stigma, which means that Sehcea exacoides, and probably most other 
species of Sebcea, possess two stigmatic organs ; they are, as I propose to 
call this structure, diplostigmatic. 
If one examines flowers of Schcea of different age, one finds that in 
flowers which have just opened the terminal stigma is still within the 
tube of the corolla, just blocking the entrance to it, whilst the secondary 
stigma appears still fairly smooth, with short papillae only and without 
adhering pollen. At a later stage — perhaps a week later (the flowers last 
fairly long) — the terminal stigma protrudes from the tube about 1 to 2 mm., 
but it is brown and shrivelled, whilst the secondary stigma is quite fresh, 
having now longer papillae and being generally covered with adhering 
pollen grains. The function of the secondary stigma is therefore evidently 
to secure self-pollination when cross-pollination should not have been 
effected, for when the style gL-adually lengthens its papillose swelling 
touches the base of the anthers. 
During all these investigations, however, I found no clue with regard 
to the insects which, I felt sure, must visit these flowers. Their colour is 
a bright yellow, and there are even orange-coloured spots at the entrance 
to the corolla tube ; the flowers possess a pleasant although weak clove- 
like scent, especially in the evening, and the anthers are provided with 
saccharine appendages, the Brown's bodies. In all probability, I thought, 
it must be some nocturnal insect, and often I watched the flowers during 
my rambles on moonlight evenings or in the dawn of the early morning, 
but in vain. This season, however, I have succeeded in finding the visitor 
and with him the explanation of previous failures. The insect is not a 
moth nor a fly, but an almost microscopically small creature belonging to 
the Thripsidse (Physopoda), a family of the Orthoptera. Their length is 
only 1 or 1^ mm., but when they are crawling up the style and attempt to 
force their way through the mass of pollen which completely fills the 
narrow space between the style and the anthers, they force a considerable 
quantity of the pollen down upon the secondary stigma. At the same 
time they cover themselves with numerous pollen grains, as can be seen on. 
