628 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
/3. Physiolog-y. 
Frank’s Text-book of Physiology.* * * § — Herr A. B. Frank’s new Text- 
book of Vegetable Physiology is divided into three sections: (1) The 
physical characters and phenomena of the plant ; (2) Metastasis ; (3) Re- 
production ; by far the larger portion being devoted to the second, which 
treats of the Nutrition of Plants through the roots, i. e. the absorption 
of water and nutrient substances, transpiration, assimilation, &c. The 
work is illustrated by some excellent new figures. 
(1) Reproduction and Germination. 
Ornithophilous Flowers, f — Mr. G. F. Scott-Elliot describes the 
structure of the flowers in Musa , Bavenala madagascariensis, and Strelitzia 
reginse, and the part played by birds in their fertilization. In the banana 
the usual fertilizers, at least in Natal, are sun-birds, although insects 
appear to assist. The Bavenala is proterandrous, and is often visited 
by sun-birds. The same is the case with Strelitzia; the honey-bee 
and the diptera, which also visit it, appear to take no part in the 
pollination. 
In South Africa the Cinnyridae or sun-birds are exceedingly good 
fertilizers, especially Nectarinia chalybea and bicollaris, and Promerops 
cajper. Like bees they, as a rule, visit only one species of flower at a 
time. Mr. Scott-Elliot believes that the identity of colour (an unusual 
shade of red) in the majority of ornithophilous flowers, and on the breast 
of species of Cinnyris , is an important element in this pollination. He 
describes the mode in which a large number of flowers, natives of the Cape 
of Good Hope, are visited by birds, viz. : — Melianthus major and comosus; 
among Leguminosee, Schotia speciosa, Erythrina caffra, and Sutherlandia 
frutescens ; Erica Plunkenetii and purpurea; Tecoma capensis , Lycium 
tubulosum, Lobostemon montanum ; among Labiatse, Leonotis ovata , Salvia 
aurea , Sarcocolla squamosa ; among Proteacese, Protea incompta , mellifera , 
lepidocarpon , and grandiflora , Leucospermum conocarpum , and Antholyza 
sethiopica. 
Insects as Fertilizers.! — Herr E. Loew gives a number of statistical 
details with regard to the visits of insects to flowers, and the part taken 
by them in pollination, chiefly in relation to the flora of the Alps and of 
northern regions ; the results are in general in harmony with those of 
H. Muller. In reference to the phenomenon of pollination, he proposes 
to classify the flowers into those with honey near the surface, at a 
moderate depth, and at a great depth ; and the visiting insects into 
allotropous, hemitropous, and eutropous. 
Flowers and Insects. § — Mr. C. Robertson continues his observations 
on the mode of pollination of American flowers, and of the insects by 
* * Lehrbuch d. Pflanzenphysiologie, mit besonderer Beriicksichtigung d. Cultur- 
pflanzen,’ Berlin, 1889, 242 pp. and 52 figs. See Bot. Centralbl., xlii. (1890) p. 210. 
t Ann. of Bot., iv. (1890) pp. 259-80 (2 pis.). 
X Abhandl. Bot. Yer. Prov. Brandenburg, 1889, pp. 1-63. See Biol. Centralbl., x. 
(1890) p. 12. Cf. this Journal, 1885, p. 990. 
§ Bot. Gazette, xiv. (1889) pp. 297-304 ; xv. (1890) pp. 79-84. Cf. this Journal, 
1889, p. 781. 
