386 Scott Elliot.— On the Fertilisation of South 
Freesia xanthospila, Klatt . 
The style is longer than the anthers before the latter 
begin to dehisce. Hence a bee beginning, as it usually does, 
on the oldest flower, will first touch its stigmata producing 
cross-fertilisation, and as it goes along the spike, will become 
well covered by the pollen of the younger. It can scarcely 
avoid fertilising the second and third flowers with pollen from 
the first however. — Visitors : — Apis mellifica , c. p., ab. — Cape 
Town Gardens. 
Lapeyrousia corymbosa, Ker. 
The flowers are arranged in a dense corymb and are 
usually mauve with a white star in the centre, bordered by 
dark purple lines. The flowers are markedly protandrous ; in 
the first stage the style with closed branches rests on the 
perianth, while the stamens are erect in the centre of the flower 
and their anthers dehisce upwards. In the second stage the 
style straightens, becomes upright and stands in the centre of 
the flower with its branches very widely open. Self-fertilisa- 
tion is possible, but only during the straightening process. 
Visitors : — Hymenoptera : small species of Ceratina. Diptera : 
Pangonia angulata } Forsk., another fly (much like the blue- 
bottle). Coleoptera : Anisonyx ursus , abund. ( Pangonia , a 
large Bombylid, particularly abundant and visiting the flowers 
in a very thorough and conscientious way.) 
Melasphaerula graminea, Ker (Fig. 15 1). 
The flowers are small, and the perianth is distinctly 
zygomorphic. The three inferior perianth-segments form the 
alighting surface for insects, and their edges are peculiarly 
turned upwards and undulate : the three upper segments are 
almost erect : there is a very minute perianth-tube usually full 
of honey, and entrance to it is obtained by two minute openings 
on either side of the anterior stamen. Visitors \~Altodape sp. 
nov. (a very small Hymenopteron). Syrphus capensis . 
Sparaxis grandiflora, Ker (Fig. 152). 
This flower really belongs to the Gladiolus-type, but there 
are some interesting peculiarities. First, the flowers are not 
pendulous, but inclined backwards towards the axis on which 
