384 Scott Elliot . — On the Fertilisation of South 
The very long perianth-tube distinguishes this genus from 
Homeria and Romulea . Honey is secreted (so far as I could 
see) by the base of the perianth-segments and it is hard to see 
of what possible use the long tube can be to the plant (cf. 
Sprengel, on Crocus, Muller, No. 702). Visitors : — Anisonyx 
ursus and two species of small Diptera. 
Aristea pusilla, Ker. 
The flowers are extremely small and fugacious. They 
are rendered unsymmetrical by the excentricity of the style, 
which being relatively very long falls over to one side. The 
flower-axis is almost vertical. Francke (Macleod, No. 156) 
has described and figured this species correctly in his Inaugural 
Dissertation. Visitors: — Hymenoptera : Halictus, sp. Diptera: 
Lucilia , sp. Coleoptera : Anisonyx ursus (all of which are 
under five lines long). 
Aristea spiralis, Vahl. (Fig. 147.) 
The flowers are almost one and three quarters of an inch 
in diameter. They are markedly zygomorphic and compared 
with Gladiolus and Antholyza show exactly the same difference 
that one finds between Plectranthus and S tacky s. The style 
is almost straight and lies on the lower part of the perianth ; 
it is much longer than the stamens whose dehiscing face is 
directed upwards. Insects enter the flower by passing above 
and over the anthers and style. In consequence of the rigid 
and broadly inserted spathe, the flowers are obliged to come 
out on the other side of the stem, viz. at 1 8o° inclination to 
their natural position. In young buds, the stamens are quite 
regular, and the twisting by which the lateral stamens are 
made to dehisce upwards and not outwards, takes place very late ; 
in some buds, in fact, which opened in my room, it did not take 
place at all. Visitors : — probably Xylocopa caffra . — Wynberg. 
Hesperantha falcata, Ker. 
There is a narrow cylindrical tube, fully 5 lines long in 
mature flowers, which is full of honey. As the flowers open 
and are scented in the evening, they are probably visited by 
night-flying moths. 
