364 
FERTILISATION OF THE GOODENIACE.V, 
against the fold of the anterior margin and so moves the auricles 
apart, when the pollen falls in a small shower on its thorax and 
head. All these contrivances point towards insect-fertilisation, 
but to complete the process one would imagine that the stigma 
should now grow beyond the lips of the indusium and project as 
has been described in Sccevola and Selliera [5]. But in at least 
ninety-five per cent, of the flowers the stigma does not project at 
all beyond the mouth, and in many it does not grow up to the 
level. Examination of large numbers of flowers just withering 
showed the outside of the indusium, the stigma, and between the 
stigma and the inner side of the walls of the indusium coated 
evenly with pollen all over, and this was apparently caused by the 
close fit of the auricles round the style applying the pollen, and 
not by insect agency at all. I can onry conjecture that the plant 
is ordinarily self-fertilised, although occasionally cross-fertilisation 
may occur from insect visits when the stigma is outgrown or near 
the mouth of the indusium. From the firmness of the hold which 
the auricles have upon the style, any insect would, in forcing its 
way in, press hard against the style and might thus deposit pollen 
upon the stigma, even though it was only at the mouth of the 
indusium, instead of projecting as in other genera. It is usual to 
find the auricles full of pollen where the flower and even the 
style is withered, so that insects do not commonly exhaust the 
pollen. The flowers are very sweetly scented, and there is a 
considerable amount of moisture at the base of the petals, in 
which, however, I could not detect any sweetness. As already 
pointed out, the membranous edges of the three lower petals are 
closely pressed together in the tube, and pucker so as to form 
guiding ridges (Fig. 3). The flowers are much frequented by 
Thrips. The auricles in the early bud are green, without any 
deep concavity, and with a pale red spot where the deepest colour 
occurs in the mature flower; this is indicated by the dotted oval 
in Fig. 4, which represents a young auricle. In this stage it 
resembles the mature auricle in D. linearis (Fig. 12). It gradually 
darkens till it is a fine purple-red with the central part a purple- 
black of wonderful intensity. This bears out Dr. A. R. Wallace's 
