African and Madagascar Flowering Plants. 341 
filaments and style. As the flower ripens, however, the 
staminal sheath and style elongate more than the petals, and 
(forcing their way between two petals) become greatly curved 
while still held by the tip of the petals ; eventually they 
become quite straight by the separation of the latter. The 
staminal tube, in its final state, is two and a half inches long, 
while the petals are only one and three quarters of an inch in 
length. Cross-fertilisation is rendered probable by the 
globular stigma (which almost blocks the entrance to the 
staminal tube), being above the polliniferous part of the 
anthers. Still self-fertilisation is not wholly excluded, as in 
older flowers the staminal sheath falls downwards over the 
bent style, and may thus bring its anthers in contact with the 
stigma. Honey seems to be secreted by hairs which cover 
the ovary. The peculiar elongation of the staminal sheath 
and the barren tips of the anthers, are curiously like Pro- 
teaceae. 
Cyclopia genistoides, Vent. (Figs. 11-16.) 
This flower belongs to the piston-type. The vexillum is 
very large, and its thick dome-shaped claw fits closely down 
over the honey entrance ; it is, moreover, the sides of the 
broad part of the vexillum which hold the two alae together 
above the carina. There is also a vertical plait in the alae which 
fits on to a triangular peglike projection of the carina {af. pc . ) ; 
both alae and carina are in their anterior part bent upwards, 
almost at a right angle to the axis of the flower ; their horizon- 
tal part rests on the lowest calyx-segment, which is expanded 
and lengthened to support them. The style lies close to the 
outer edge of the carina in a well-defined tubular sheath ; the 
pollen is pushed forward by the anthers of the short-anthered 
stamens (whose filaments do not seem to be thickened). The 
stigma emerges before the anthers, and is protected to a certain 
extent from its own pollen by a small ring of hairs. I 
thought, however, that the stigma had the same peculiarity 
as that of Anthyllis (cf. Muller, ‘Fertilisation of Plants/ 
p. 172). 
