Janies Small. 
218 
but smaller. The fertility varies so that in some capitula these 
florets are sterile and the style acts only as a pollen presenter. 
In the outer rings, Fig. 1, F2 and F3, the florets are always 
hermaphrodite and tubular with the pappus composed of five wide 
membranous scales. Attached to the base of the florets are a 
number of setae similar to those which cover the receptacle. The 
ray florets are in one row, ligulate with no stamens and with the 
style of a different type (Fig. 2) from that of the disc florets (Fig. 3). 
The receptacle is covered with setae which are more or less 
membranous. 
Pollination Mechanism . 
When the young capitulum opens the ray florets spread out 
disclosing a disc which is nearly flat. The first sign of activity 
occurs in the F3 row, where the corolla has, during the previous 
night, elongated but remained closed as in Fig. 1, B. The corolla 
opens out and the staminal tube is seen to be closed at the top by 
five nearly black apical appendages. As it is a South African 
species all the activities of the florets are best seen when the flower 
is examined on the plant in a greenhouse during warm, sunny 
weather. Under such conditions the corolla breaks open about 
8.30 a.m. in June. Half an hour later a few of the florets show 
the tips of the styles emerging from the staminal tube and by 
10 a.m. most, if not all, the florets in the active row have the style 
aa shown in Fig. 1, D and Fig. 4. Each style takes from five to 
ten minutes to emerge under the best conditions, but if the atmos¬ 
phere is cold or the plant is in deep shade the styles may not come 
out at all, or they may come out only partially, or they may come 
out entirely but very slowly. Under good conditions of light and 
temperature, however, the process of pollen presentation can be 
seen very clearly within a few minutes. 
One of the peculiarities of the style in this stage is that it is 
sensitive to touch and moves quickly in the direction of the touch. 
The arrow in Fig. 4 indicates the point of contact and Fig. 5 
represents the position assumed as a consequence by the style. 
This irritability is shown immediately the upper hairy portion of 
the style is free of the staminal tube. The tip of the style formed 
by the two closely adpressed branches of the stigma has no pollen 
upon it but the remainder of the thick part of the style is completely 
coated with the yellow sticky particles. 
When the flower head is in a vigorous condition the style 
recovers quickly from the movement and regains its irritability in 
