388 Scott Elliot . — On the Fertilisation of South 
Babiana plicata, Ker (Figs. 1 54-1 55). 
The perianth-tube is in this flower nearly eleven lines 
long. The stigma is at first well above the anthers, but self- 
fertilisation may be produced by the way in which the anthers 
curl upwards when withering (see Fig.) and by a slight sinking 
of the style. Visitors : — Anisonyx ursus also visits this flower, 
but it probably is not the most important visitor. — Sea 
Point, Cape Town. 
Babiana ringens, Ker. 
See Annals of Botany, Vol. IV. p. 278. 
Gladiolus. 
In this genus there appears to be great variation in the 
relative position of the style-branches and anthers which has 
led Treviranus (Bot. Zeit. Bd. XXI. p. 1) and Musset (Comptes 
Rendus, T. CVIII. No. 17) to consider the flowers as self-fer- 
tilised. 
There is no doubt, however, that the flowers are distinctly 
protandrous, as shown by Delpino (see Hildebrand, Bot. Zeit. 
Bd. XXVIII. p. 670), and this clearly appears from Musset’s own 
account of the same species ( G . segetum). My own observa- 
tions (on G. pilosus , gracilis , and inflatus') led me to conclude, 
first , that the anthers always begin to dehisce before the style- 
branches have unclosed ; secondly, that there is in most 
flowers a second stage in which the open mature stigmata lie 
quite in front , though sometimes below the level of the anthers 
(Fig. 157) ; and thirdly , that self-fertilisation can only take 
place in such conditions as those drawn (see Figs. 158, 159), 
where the style-branches have finally been brought against 
the anthers either by themselves curling back or by the 
gradual sinking of the style itself. 
Gladiolus gracilis, Jacq. (Figs. 160, 1 61.) 
The mauve-coloured flowers of this species have the 
edges of the inferior lateral perianth-segments turned upwards 
so as to form four crinkled ribs running into the base of 
flower ; Anisonyx ursus makes use of these edges to haul 
itself laboriously inwards. Its hairy body is adapted to 
