392 Scott Elliot.— On the Fertilisation of South 
the peduncle it changes through pink to a light orange-yellow 
or almost white, so that if, as I think, it is fertilised by 
Nectarinae, this is of advantage as showing the birds which 
to avoid ; I never found bees in South Africa entombed in 
the perianth (Macleod, No. 274 a).— Somerset East. 
Lachenalia tricolor, Thunb . 
Bees frequently bite holes in the perianth of this species 
and so steal the honey. — Cape Town Gardens. 
Albuea major, L. (Fig. 163.) 
The three inner perianth-segments are closely appressed 
to the style which projects a little beyond them ; their ex- 
tremities are abruptly bent inwards and this incurved portion 
(one line long, two lines broad, and about half a line thick) 
is movable at the bend (pt. a Fig. 163). The lower part of 
the inner filaments (f) is flattened and about a line and a half 
broad, and this flat basal portion stretches across the groove 
formed by the projecting lobes of the ovary, so as to form a 
pouch for the honey which is secreted by the base of the 
ovary ; at a distance of one and a half lines from the base, 
however, the edges of the flat filament are brought inwards so 
as to form a narrow canal (f 2 ) which is the entrance to the above 
honey-pouch, while the uppermost part of the filament again 
flattens out and supports the freely movable anther, whose 
extremity lies beneath the incurved end of the inner perianth- 
segment. On pushing the inner perianth-segment gently 
away from the ovary, the tip of the anther is held by this 
incurved piece and the anther rotates on its filament till it 
forms an angle of 45 0 with it. At the Washhouses, Cape Town, 
I saw Xylocopa violacea and another large black bee hanging 
on to the pendulous flowers and inserting their heads within 
the inner perianth-segments ; in so doing they will produce 
this rotation of the anther and their heads will remove most 
of the pollen, while they are inserting their proboscis in the 
filamentary groove and sucking the honey. This arrangement 
seems to me to prevent their backs being (except to a small 
extent) dusted with pollen as it is only the head that can 
