Trelease.] 
420 
[March 15, 
they effect this. It has been shown that the brilliant cones of 
Protea and Banksia are frequented by birds belonging to the genera 
Hectarinia and Meliphaga, to which they are closely adapted 
(Delpino: 1, 183; 2, 329, 332). After commenting on these, 
Delpino (1, 183) adds “but I cannot conjecture what are the fer- 
tilizers of Hakea, Grevillea, etc. Probably they are balancing 
birds or Lepidoptera, as one might suppose from the structure of 
the flowers and especially the great distance of the stigmatic disk 
from the nectar gland ; but in this case I cannot understand why 
the gland itself should be naked and exposed, rather than in the 
bottom of a nectariferous cavity or tube.” He also mentions the 
absence of an adequate alighting place as a reason for consider- 
ing certain Hakeas, etc., dependent upon balancing pollinators 
(2, 209). His remark about the exposed gland perhaps refers to 
the early falling of the calyx in some species ; but in the two 
examined by myself this does not occur as a rule until after the 
flower has reached the third stage of its development. 
Mr. Bentham, whose studies were for the most part confined to 
herbarium specimens, does not appear to have comprehended the 
process of crossing. He says “when the flower is quite ready to 
expand, the force which overcomes the cohesion of the valvate 
perianth-segments and anthers generally bursts them asunder 
with more or less elasticity so as to promote the scattering of the 
previously loosened pollen, after which the liberated style matures 
its stigma and becomes ready to receive any pollen that may 
reach it from neighboring flowers” (1, 59). In many of the 
curved-flowered Grevilleas and Hakeas it is not uncommon to 
find the sepals still cohering after the escape of the style; just as 
in Banksia the cohesion is often sufficient to prevent even the 
withdrawal of this organ. Of the first case, Mr. Bentham says 
“ when the style starts up it bears the anthers with their loose 
pollen in a sort of cup ; and here the agency of insects may be 
required to transfer the pollen to adjoining flowers.” The liberated 
style of Banksia is said to spring upward on its release, “ shaking 
off the pollen it had collected whilst still enclosed with the anthers ” 
(1,61). I regret having been unable to examine living flowers of 
this genus, but from what is known of Grevillea and Hakea I can- 
not believe that this dispersion of the pollen generally occurs. 
The passages quoted indicate that Mr. Bentham did not notice 
