African and Madagascar Flowering Plants. 387 
they are supported. The style is long (about one inch) and 
its branches when open are on the same level as the tips of the 
perianth-segments, and afford a convenient point for the insects 
(usually beetles) to alight upon. The wide infundibular 
perianth ends in a short tube about 3! lines long, which is full 
of honey. The stamens, however, have a special arrange- 
ment ; for while the odd stamen is turned back towards the 
style and curved so as to have its dehiscing face directed for- 
wards, the two lateral stamens are so twisted (through i8o°) 
that they dehisce introrsely, so that the entrance to the honey- 
tube at a (see Fig.) is surrounded by three dehiscing 
anthers. This is, in the case of the lateral stamens, an 
advance on Gladiolus in which these anthers are only turned 
through 90°. Visitors : — -Anisonyx ursus and A. longipes % both 
very ab. (Usually this beetle seizes hold of the two lateral 
stamens by its hind claws and swings itself down into the 
centre of the flower, and in doing so its hairy back becomes 
covered with pollen. Self-fertilisation occurs when two are in 
the same flower and chasing one another round it.) 
Tritonia squalida, Ker . 
This form is rather like Sparaxis , but the lateral stamens 
are not so much twisted and the style usually lies against the 
lower part of the perianth. 
Babiana spathaeea, Ker (Fig. 153). 
The arrangement is in this species quite similar to 
Gladiolus. The perianth -tube is only about 34 lines long. 
The two inferior perianth-segments are turned up along the 
edges, and these edges are crinkled and wavy (cf. Gladiolus 
pilosus). The stigmatic lips hang in front of the anthers 
and are also below them. It is visited by Anisonyx ursus , 
which lays hold of the upturned edges of the perianth by its 
hind claws. The length of its hind legs will then bring the 
extremity of its back (which is covered with hairs) first against 
the bifid extremity of the style-branches, and then against 
the anthers. Self-fertilisation, however, is not excluded. — 
Kloof Road, Cape Town. 
