longest of all, third short, fourth almost as long as the second and bent at an angle with the others; fifth very short, four last subequal; all furnished with strong hairs. Ovigerous legs strongly curved, not quite as long as body without the abdomen. Legs strong and very hairy; first three joints small, subequal; fourth twice as long as third, bearing a tubular process on the dorsal surface beyond the middle; fifth and sixth joints very long, subequal, very slender; first tarsal joint extremely small, second long and distinctly curved; claw scythe-shaped, auxiliary claws wanting; all the joints furnished with long and strong hairs, standing at right angles.

Only one specimen of this remarkable species was obtained by the dredge from a depth of 700 fathoms in lat. 37° 34′ S., long. 179° 22′ E.

NOTES ON THE FERTILISATION OF KNIGHTIA.

BY T. F. CHEESEMAN, ESQ.

Mr. Bentham, in a suggestive paper on the styles of the Australian Proteacea printed in the Journal of the Linnean Society (Botany vol. 13, p.58), has pointed out that in nearly all the species the anthers open while the flower is unexpanded, and discharge their pollen on an enclosed portion of the style, usually, though incorrectly, described as the stigma. The case is thus strictly analogous with what takes place in Compositæ, with this difference-that in Composite the stigmatic surface is always on the inner face of the two arms of the style, which remain in contact until some little time after the floret has expanded. So that, although the outside of the style may be at first thickly covered with pollen, yet it is all brushed off by the visits of insects or removed by other means before the stylebranches separate. There is thus little danger of the pollen from any particular floret reaching the stigma belonging to it, and a much greater chance is afforded of cross-fertilisation taking place. In Proteacea, as Mr. Bentham remarks, the style is undivided, and the stigma is always external, although generally minute. It therefore happens that in many of the Australian genera special contrivances are required to prevent the flower's own pollen from reaching the stigma. Some of these contrivances are so remarkable that it has long been a matter of surprise to me that no Australian botanist has fully examined them, and explained the different modes of fertilisation dependent on their action; more especially as a cursory inspection of the few species cultivated in our gardens has shown me that Mr. Bentham has by no means described all the curious adaptations that exist.

In New Zealand we have only two representatives of Proeacea, the well-known Rewa-rewa tree (Knightia excelsa) and the Toro (Persoonia toro). With the fertilisation of the latter plant

I am not fully acquainted, but in neither species do we find modifications of structure so remarkable as those described by Mr. Bentham among the Australian forms, and probably both agree in possessing a comparatively simple mode of fertilisa

tion.

The curious inflorescence of Knightia is familiar to most settlers in the northern portion of the Colony. The flowers, which are of a bright red-brown colour, and very conspicuous, are arranged in pairs on stout lateral racemes, 2 to 4 inches long, each raceme containing from 40 to 80 flowers, or even more. Before expansion the perianth is cylindrical in shape, slightly swollen at the base, and then contracted, but again gradually thickened toward the extremity. It is about 11⁄2 inch long, and is externally everywhere covered with a dense velvety tomentum. In the young bud there is no appearance of segments, but some time before expansion the top of the tube splits into four minute teeth, the apex of the style showing between. Later on the segments come apart at the base of the perianth, and by degrees the separation extends higher up. For a long time, however, they firmly cohere in the upper swollen part of the tube, and the final separation always takes place suddenly and elastically, the four segments each coiling up into a tight spiral band, which is packed away at the very base of the flower. The fully matured racemes show, therefore, little more than a brush of long styles projecting from a mass of twisted perianth-segments, and present a very different appearance to those in the bud state, so much so that I have had both brought to me as the flowers of two distinct plants! The anthers are four in number, sessile towards the top of the perianth lobes, and in the bud form a ring round the upper part of the style, to which they are closely applied. The style is over an inch in length, rather slender at the base, but much swollen in its upper half, forming a lengthened club-shaped termination usually considered as the stigma; but the true stigmatic surface appears to be minute, and situated in a little depression towards the summit. At the base of the flower are four rounded glands, secreting an abundance of nectar, which slowly exudes from them, and usually surrounds the base of the Ovary. The flowers have a strong and very peculiar odour, a single raceme being quite sufficient to unpleasantly scent a close

room.

If a flower bud is examined just prior to expansion, it will be noticed that the anthers have opened down their inner face and deposited the whole of their pollen on the moist surface of the thickened portion of the style, on which it forms four little ridges. After the opening of the flower and coiling up of the perianth-segments, the pollen is thus left exposed on the surface of the style. This looks like a simple case of self-fertilisation, but a little examination proves that the stigmatic surface is not mature until some time after the flowers open, and that before it is in a receptive condition the pollen has all been removed. Some means must therefore exist by which the pollen is regularly

transferred from the younger to the older flowers. It is natural to assume that this is done through the agency of insects, especially as the great abundance of honey induces many to visit the flowers. But in most cases they simply crawl about between the styles, and never touch either the pollen or stigma elevated far above them. It appears to me that large insects only could aid in the work of fertilisation; and even among these the nocturnal or crepuscular moths could be of little service, as the styles are far enough apart to allow of their proboscides being inserted without touching. Possibly some of the larger Diptera or Coleoptera, as well as the honey-bee (which is a regular visitant), may be of use; but the conclusion I have arrived at is that the flowers are principally adapted for fertilisation by honey-feeding birds such as the Tui (Prosthemadera) and Korimako (Anthornis). That the former bird regularly frequents the flowers I have repeatedly noticed; and old and observant residents, who were well acquainted with. the habits of the Korimako before its disappearance from the northern forests, all agree in stating that it was equally ready to take advantage of the luscious supply of honey offered by the plant. The exact mode of fertilisation hardly needs describing; it is obvious that the bird, in thrusting its head between the styles of a recently-expanded raceme, must dust the feathers of the forehead and throat with pollen, and that when it visited. flowers in a more advanced stage, the pollen would be rubbed off on the style, and probably smeared over the stigma.

It is now well-established that, from causes that have hitherto eluded our research, undoubted advantages are possessed by cross-fertilised over self-fertilised plants; and an excellent argument in favour of this view may be inferred from the case of Knightia. We find that the structure and arrangement of the parts of the flower are such that the style and stigma are actually embedded for some time in a mass of pollen, so that no one can doubt that if self-fertilisation had been the preferable mode, it might have been obtained with certainty, and with a minimum expenditure of force. But instead of this we see a number of contrivances all pointing in the opposite direction. The ripening of the stigma is delayed, and its size reduced, in order that there may be no risk of contamination by pollen from the same flower; the summit of the style is enlarged to form a suitable stage on which the pollen may be presented to the visitors, to whom the task of transferring it from flower to flower is entrusted; the perianth segments are coiled up and removed from their path; and a suitable attraction is afforded in the abundant supply of nectar. Surely these contrivances would not be provided if some great advantage were not expected in return. To my mind, cases similar to those of Knightia-and they are probably numerous enough-afford additional proof of the truth of Mr. Darwin's well-known aphorism-"That Nature tells us, in the most emphatic manner, that she abhors perpetual self-fertilisation."

GENERAL NOTES.

EARTHQUAKE DISTURBANCES IN NORTH CANTERBURY.We are indebted to Mr. J. D. Enys for some interesting information respecting the results of the earthquake of December 5th, 1881, as recorded from three different localities in the Canterbury provincial district.

The first instance was recorded by Mr. Carson, manager of the Grasmere Station, near the Cass river. About two hours after the earthquake shock (10.30 a.m.) he noticed, in passing a small lake called Lake Sarah, that at a distance of about two or three chains from the bank, mounds of water were thrown up to a height of 4 to 5 feet. Two hours later they were still in action. The lake is situated at the foot of a sugar-loaf hill of considerable height, and is placed at an elevation of two or three hundred feet above the Waimakariri. The formation in which it occurs is said to be an ancient one, but nothing more definite is stated. Mr. Enys communicated his information about this remarkable disturbance to the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, in a paper read at its February meeting.

The second instance is from Banks Peninsula, on the southwestern slopes of Mount Herbert, over Little River. Here, a few days after the earthquake, a mound of earth was thrown up, and steam issued for some time. The clay and soil also in the mound were found to be burnt.

Lastly, at a place called the Ram paddock, situated near Oxford, and about ten miles north of Waimakariri river, some springs several feet in depth were completely dried up. At the same time a new spring, described as possessing a smell which inakes the immediate locality unapproachable, has broken out. The whole country in the neighbourhood of the Ram paddock is also said to be continually on the move.

At Castle Hill, the chimneys were destroyed, and articles on shelves running east and west, and facing to the north, were thrown inwards into the rooms.

THE USE OF LIGNITE IN THE BLAST FURNACE.-We are indebted to the courtesy of the Editor of "Nature" for a copy of the paper on the above subject, by Prof. von Tünner. The article is one which has a practical interest to us in New Zealand, where lignite is abundant, and no apology to our readers is needed for its insertion in these columns.

FERNS.-We omitted to notice in our last issue that Mr. H. C. Field, of Wanganui, will be glad to name any collections of ferns entrusted to him for that purpose. We come across so many misnamed specimens among the ordinary fern-collectors' sets, that it is as well to know those persons who are able to name correctly.

UNIVERSITY HONOURS IN SCIENCE. It will be gratifying to all in New Zealand interested in scientific work, and to the friends of Mr. Chas. Chilton, of Canterbury College, in particular, to learn that he passed his Honours Examination in Biology very successfully. The examiner, Professor H. Alleyne Nicholson, of St. Andrews, remarks on the research papers sent in by Mr. Chilton:-" Three excellently worked out and well illustrated memoirs, showing a wide knowledge of the subject dealt with, both as regards the original descriptions and the literature of the subject."

NEW ZEALAND SYSTEMATISTS.-We have much pleasure in adding to our lists the our lists the name of Mr. Richard Wm. Fereday, solicitor, of Christchurch, and member of the Entomological Society of London, as a worker on New Zealand MicroLepidoptera. Mr. Fercday's contributions to our knowledge of this branch of science have been very numerous and valuable, as the pages of the New Zealand Institute Transactions testify. Any persons sending collections of moths and butterflies to Mr. Fereday, are requested to append date and place of capture.

NAULTINUS SYLVESTRIS, Buller.-In January, 1880, Dr. Buller described to the Wellington Philosophical Society a curious example of assimilative colouring which had come under his notice in the case of a tree-lizard, Naultinus sylvestris (Maori, Pirirewa), the reptile being brown with yellow spots, thus resembling a common lichen (see New Zealand Institute Transactions, vol xiii, p. 419). Two other cases have lately come within my own cognizance. The one is that of a Pirirewa, which I caught several weeks ago in the Upper Wangaehu Valley, and which I sent down alive to a friend in Wanganui, who keeps such things as pets. Besides the ordinary markings, the reptile has along each side of its body five large patches of bright golden green, and its tail is of a silver-grey colour. I do not know whether this last marking arises from its having cast its tail at some time, and produced another, for though the change in the marking is quite sharply defined, the tail is, if anything, longer than ordinary. At first I thought the creature was a new variety, as its eyes were surrounded by rings of fiery red. Dr. Buller, however, on seeing it, found that this glowing appearance arose from masses of parasites, which it seems infest that portion of the Pirirewa.

The other was a similar lizard which Mr. T. Adamson caught about the same time at Murimotu, and which was of a silverywhite colour, but with red eyes similar to mine. Mr. Adamson put the animal alive into a jar, intending to give it to some person who took interest in such matters. In a few days, however, when he went to show it to a friend, he found it had vanished, and on enquiry it turned out that the Maoris, who are terrified at lizards, and who were afraid to visit the house while the reptile was there, had persuaded one of his family to let it go. This dread of lizards in the Maori race is very curious, as it seems to