ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
505 
Physiology of the Flower of Victoria regia.* * * § — Herr E. Enoch 
finds a gradual passage from the fertile stamens in this water-lily to 
the paracarpels, which must be regarded as staminodes. Their origin 
coincides altogether with that of the stamens. When the flower opens, 
it emits a strong odour, and gives out a large amount of heat. Insects, 
which appear to be necessary for pollination, are thus attracted, and 
are detained by the bending over of the stamens and staminodes 
until the anthers are discharging their pollen. The flower then again 
opens, and the insects carry the pollen to other flowers. The source 
of the elevation of the temperature lies in the stamens, the staminodes, 
and the appendages to the carpels, chiefly in the latter. The odour 
commences at the same time, and is due to the action of oxygen on the 
cells of the staminodes. 
Cross-Pollination and Self-Pollination. — Herr 0. Ekstam j finds, 
in the flora of Spitzbergen, but very few species which are entirely 
dependent on insects for their pollination, though a considerable number 
are ordinarily cross-pollinated. The flowers are not larger, but are 
more brightly coloured, than those of lower latitudes. As in Nova 
Zembla, the proportion of scented species (with few exceptions an 
agreeable odour) is very large, amounting to about 20 per cent. 
Mr. A. G. Hamilton J describes the mode of pollination in a number 
of American plants. In Erythrina indica (Leguminosse) the carriage of 
pollen is effected by birds in search of honey, chiefly several species of 
Ptilotis. 
According to Herr G. Volkens,§ ornithophily is a widely distributed 
phenomenon in the Kilmandscharo flora. He records this especially in 
the cases of Loranthus Ehlersii, laciniatus, and undulatus, and Protea 
Kilimandscharica. The pollinating birds are the honey-birds, which in 
Africa represent the American humming-birds. 
(2) Nutrition and Growth (including- Germination, and Movements 
of Fluids). 
Symbiotic Saprophytism.|| — Prof. D. T. MacDougal discusses the 
biological relationship of saprophyte to host in the case of a large 
number of American host-plants, and arrives at the following general 
conclusions. 
Saprophytism is an adaptation of the absorbent mechanism, or of 
the character of the metabolic capacity of an organism. Symbiotic 
saprophytism is the natural result of the supplemental capacities of 
two organisms brought into nutritive contact chemotropically. The 
Fungi which form mycorhiza are capable of independent existence, 
and undergo modifications of the hyphae and reproductive organs in 
* ‘Unters. iib. d. Morphologie, Biologie, u. Physiologic d. Bliiten v. Victoria 
regia,’ Marburg, 1897, 56 pp. See Bot. Centralbl., lxxviii. (1899) p. 183. 
f Tromso Mus. Aarsk., xx. (1897) 66 pp. See Bot. Centralbl., lxxviii. (1899) 
p. 51. Cf. this Journal, 1898, p. 444. 
t Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. Wales, 1898, pp. 759-66 (1 pi.). 
§ ‘Ueb. d.iBestaubung einiger Loranthaceen u. Proteaceen,’ Berlin, 1899, 20 pp. 
and 1 pi. See Bot. Ztg., lvii. (1899) 2 te Abth., p. 215. 
|| Ann. of Bot., xiii. (1899) pp. 1-47 (2 pis. and 1 fig.). 
