269 
in South Africa . 
pearances of a brush piston flower, like that of some vetches 
for instance. The vexillum covers the sides of the flower, 
overlapping laterally in front of the carina. There is a dis- 
tinct pouch at the tip of the carinae enclosing the anthers 
which are packed in two whorls, with the usual difference in 
length of filament and size of anther in each whorl. The 
pollen is shed on a brush of hairs covering the inner face of 
the style 1 . 
When the vexillum opens, the whole mechanism of the 
flower becomes looser ; the carina elongates and its pouch 
becomes obliterated, and the style grows with the carina, still 
bearing the pollen on its hairs. 
On depression the style simply emerges. The alae take no 
part in depressing the carina, though possibly their auricles, 
which pass backwards under the claw of the vexillum, make 
the motion more steady and regular 2 . 
The flowers are much visited by Cinnyris Nectarinia famosa 
at Brakfontyn, near Beaufort West, in the Karoo (Miss 
Jackson). 
ERICACEAE. 
Erica Plukenetii, L. 
The pendulous flowers form dense clusters at the ends of the 
branches. The corolla is ten lines long, narrowing to the 
throat. The anthers hang completely out of the corolla, ex- 
tending to fully half an inch from the entrance (so that the 
distance from their extremities to the base of the flower is 
sixteen lines, which is exactly the length of beak of N ectarinia 
chalybed). 
The stigma is about a line below the anthers, and so comes 
first in contact with the birds’ heads. Honey is secreted by 
nectaries at the base of the flower. 
This is abundantly visited by N. chalybea on the hills near 
1 Stigma protected from its own pollen by a small stiff ring of hairs. 
2 This flower seems to me very probably a modification of some such type as 
Lessertia fiulchra , which is practically in the same condition as Sutherlandia 
before unfolding of the vexillum. 
