770 Scott.— On the Flowers of Sparmannia africana , 
Effect of Rain on the Flower. 
Kerner describes the effect of rain on the flowers of 
Sparmannia africana b He says : ‘ The flowers are inverted 
and their anthers are turned towards the ground and covered 
over by the petals. When the flower is open, however, the 
petals are slightly tilted back, i. e. upwards. The margins 
of the petals overlap one another, and their outer surfaces, 
which in consequence of the inverted position of the flower 
are uppermost, thus form a basin open to the sky. When 
it rains this basin placed above the anthers fills with water, 
thus adding to the weight borne by the stalk, and as drop 
after drop increases the strain upon the latter, a point is 
at length reached when the basin tips over, letting the water 
flow over its edge, without wetting the stamens suspended 
beneath it.’ 
I have repeated this experiment ; Fig. 26 shows the 
position of the flower before the rain-shower, Figs. 27 and 
28 after the rain has begun. For a long time the cup fills 
and empties, shooting out the water in the direction of the 
arrow in Fig. 28 in a most perfect manner, and the stamens 
remain perfectly dry. The long, dense hairs of the sepals 
which form the cup also help to throw off the water rapidly. 
But if the rain is long continued or very heavy, the stamens 
eventually get wetted, as seen in Figs. 27 and 28, where the 
drops can be seen running off the stamens, which are hanging 
together in groups. Fig. 29 represents the same flower 
shutting up at 7 p.m. I found that if the stamens were once 
wetted the flower did not reopen, though if they kept dry 
they opened as usual the following day. 
Chloroform Experiments. 
One flower was chloroformed for a few seconds ; the stamens 
were no longer sensitive, but recovered their sensitiveness again 
after a short lapse of time. 
1 Kerner von Marilaun, A., Eng. Ed. 1895, vol. ii, p. 119. 
