NOTES BY THE WAYSIDE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11303, 22 December 1898, Page 2

NOTES BY THE WAYSIDE.

By George M. Thomson F.L.S,

Nov thai .the clematis* flowers ,BaV'e passed, the native/ bush has not a singk^ . conspicuous blussom left. ; Beautiful "as; tire the shades 01. green which characterise,' the foliage..yei/it is true; that as compared with the vivid «lours of.»"'. woodland scene in tile.old couiitry. our bush has » somewhat sombre ..aspect/.. ._J?he _m.ost,. sombre., hues. are, those r qf. the fuchsia .and the large-leayed panaj .(sometimes; erroneously called New Zealand gumtree), but there is. a wonderful diversity "of "Colour and;' '■ shade' in the "banks and'masses of foliage which meet the eye-in- a bit of the native bush or scrub. There is nothing io restful to the eyo as the greenness of grass and of young lohage, und though most of our native trees and bushes lack the vivid verdafict,' of * meadow in iprhigtimo, yet they have a quiet beauty of tint of their own •,hich is very charming. Looking over a bit 01 greenery filling one of the dells which cross the Town Belt, I' can see about a aozeii shades of colour, varying from the 'orignt green of young broadleaf and Muhxenbecltia (what a name for a graceful, clinging climber!) xo the olive and Tiis=et greens and Brown!) of the red mapau and the jpepper wee. »nd the dark hues of the tuchsias, all blending harmoniously into one anothei. Among the foliage there are flowers in abundance, though ■ mostly so small ana so unassuming in appeal ahce as to escape notice. Still there are numerous ana interesting things to be seen among these unobtrusive* flowers The common fuchsii» is a good example Its branches are just now often crowded with flowers, thougtt their season is nearly past. These are ot « green or greenish-purple colour, and in general form resemble many of the kinas frequently grown in the garden 01 greenhouse, though the latter are usually mort. slender, and also more highly

coloured. Let us looK at these flowers. They are aiways placed on the lower side of the branch, whatever their position may be primarily their stalk curves in such a man-ner-do-to bring them to the under side. lii tnu cultivated species, which are all of "South American origin, this pendulo.is 'character is usually-mort> pronounced, and in b'oia cases it is associated with the mode in which the flowers are cross-fertilised by hon.ey birds. In most flowers the calyx is a protective organ, the corolla .being the coloured and attractive portion, but in • iuchstas • the calyx'has become chiefly "attractive, dfid the petals lend- to become reduced in size accordingly In the Spurn American species both whorls, tire, brightly but usually differently coloured, and .it ,is in' part the contrast' between them which causes the flowers to bo so conspicuously bright JSu^ in. our common' bush fortti the petals axe reduced to little dark purple scales 'which stand between the divisions of' the~oalyx, while in the small creeping Fuchsia procumbens from the Great Barrier Island—'commonly cultivated here as o. pot planv-rtho petals have disappeared altogether." Protruding from the mouth of the calyx are eight stamens, the anthers of ■which all open at; the-same time anddis-piay-.their -little masses of bright blue polleu. It may be noted here that blue" is a ."•are colour in polleu; it acts ,in this instance us an additional attraction 10 a flower which has evidently lost brilhancy of hue in other parts. Hanging out from the~centre~ol the flower is a long reddish

style'," ending' m a rather large greenish '« yellowish stigma,, which is often seen to be smeared' with blue pollen. At first sigm. the flower seems to bu fitted, for self-lertilisation, »s if the pollen could drop ■ eadily vii to its -own stigma, yet a little examination- shows- that this is not the case.' In the first place' flowers do not produco nectar ror nothing,"—they are constructed on the Bismarckian prinpiple "do ut ,<los,"—and /if the dilated licctarie^ ,'of cheso fuchsias , contain much sweet fluid,, it'i&as » Dait to the korimakos, which are needed to fertilise them. Then -the pollen does not drop out of the anther cells, and you -cannot make it do so by shaking. If a 'little of it be mounted in a drop of olive

oil 'and examined under the microscope, .t will.be seen that, all .the minute grains, are^tied together" by,fine'thfeads.'so that' tney ao not fall away, from each other. ,| It is a very easy thing to watch korimakos ' «z work on the flowers, for if the watcher keeps quite quiet and has «, little patience, me birds will show plenty ■of confidence I and will coward his watch. How actively tliv lithe creatures movo among .the', branches, bending and twisting their graceful .bodies and necks under the flowers, t

into each of which the long biush-tipped tongue is thrust! While so engaged the feathers'ai the base of the bill and oa the from, of the head become smeared with blue patches'of pollen, which is thus conveyed to one .stigmas: .Were the konmako a quiet etnd rafiher sedentary bird, such visitations would only bring aboui; fertilisation of flowers .by others on the same tree, but so restless is. it and so perpetually .on the move, that it flits about from tree to tree, os if it revelled in the abundance of the feast provided for it. There is » second form" of fuchsia, m the bush, not so common-.as'the larger one, but utill abundant "enough, which is characterised by its smaller leaves and much smaller, palercoloured flowers. ■ What marks it out mostclearly from its commoner relative .is that the stamens are not only very much reduced m size, but chat then- anthers contain no pollen. Thus, .while the flowers of the larger form are probably 'incapable of self-fertilisa-tion, chough possessing both the reproduc live whorls fully developed, this smaller kind is also hermaphrodite, in' structure, but is strictly female in function, being absolutely • dependent on pollen from the larger form for'fertilisation of its ovules. The stigmas are olten. to be seen smudged with blue pcllen, and tile bushes bear abundance of berries, so that the flowers must be freoly visited.: , ' •-■',":

Both these iorms belong to the Same species, I\ excorticata —so' called from its habit of casting 'of its lighl-Wwii 'papery bark, —and it is one of the curious problems still awaiting solution at the hands of botanists why so many flowers in this country are sexually imperfect. Twenty or 30 years dgo it seemed proved to the minds of,most scientific authorities (thanks largely to the labours of Darwin) that cross-fertili-sation was the rule, among the more highlydeveloped plants, being to beneficial to the aperies -which had attained to it. In later years Henslow and others accumulated much evidence to. show that, self-fertilisation was far more common "than it wa"s thought to be. Now the pendulum of scientific thought is swinging in the other'direction again, because—in New Zealand at anyrate—no other solution of -thu question seems feasible, except that cross-fertilisation is generally beneficial to all species of plants,, otherwise they would not exhibitso many devices to secure it. ■■. .• "". . . What a, ourious problem is shadowed forth by the distribution• of the fuchsias! The genus occurs only in the South American regionf where it ranges along the Andes from Mexico, to the' Straits of Magellan, and in New Zealand. Whichever region is its headquarters' or starling point, the question arises, How did it spread to the other? Land connection, say some, calmly ignoring the thousands of miles of abyssal seas which separate this two-areas The seeds could not be earned by the wind, for they are enclosed in 'a succulent berry. ' But they could be and are" carried in "the crops and stomachs of birds, -and_ in 'this way migiit be borne a thousand mileii or moie by chance. For it is not an uncommon thing,in tlie Auckland peninsula,"after--periods of westerly gales ,_ to - tear of Australian birds'which have strayed there, and. for, one that is seen or shot, theie must be'many which arrive and probably get killed 'by- gulls and other coast birds, or succumb tortile severe knocking about they have got..' In some such way it might be possible to account for succulent-fruited plants' being spread across considerable areas, of sea. or from island to island. But unless" \ there', were, during pas>t epochs, intervening islands-^not' necessarily, of course, in a straight line—it is , difficult to account for " the occurrence of fuchsias ',in ~two, so widely (Separated' regions and nowhere else on the. surface of the globe. But the question cannot be solved by the Wayside, and we must leave it for the present. Only -it is sure to crop up agiun'immediately.'for what will answer the question for fuchsias, will answer it for a number of Qth?r plantsand, for some animals us welL-' "* ' I have-spoken of the sombre hues of the fuchsia, but what a pretty sight it is on a, bright, breezy clay,—such as we have had any of recently,—to see the play of colour, us the, wind ] turns up the whitish under rides of tho leaves. Though thin in texture tn'd- exposing a lafjj» surfafie to the action

of .the sun, and wind,, these, leaves are remarkably : .well protected against;.-extremes i.6l heat and cold. Theiv upper surface-has' no, or very few, apertures,.while the green |, pigment; which so Jrfiely '',';absprbs. the, sun's light and heat is . densely, packed^ in the cells just ..underneath its;..; The, lojsy.ei?" surface, on the other hand, is perforated by very hiiinefous stomata; or breathing pores,, 'and th^ cells immediately' tinder 'the epider:-; mis contain only air aiiid hence; act. as a . rion-conducting layer, as far as heat; is concerned. . Prom rough measurement's recently madeby myself, I calculate that there are about'-375j000- stomata-on -every; square inch ■ of the,'under surface of a fuchsia-leaf What ■an .amount .of watev > large; "tf efr of this, species _must..;evapOTate.in .a. dry summer day.! In -, this - : southern : end >of New , Zealand there is a tendency for the fuchsia to lose -its leaves'in' the end. .'of;..'autumn,, especially iii ,'.■ the case of; plants gr'dwirig in \iplarid and rather open! ground. , On the upper,, slopes of Flagstaff ./.and, 'Swampy .Hills, for .instance, - fuchsias ■■> are often nearly - b'are':'in;'' winter ; ''.^vere,,. it-otherwise. they ~■would "get stripped of leaves;,-arid, bfanphes" diiring heavy snow.falls...' .■'\<Ci '■■'• \yhat.,has,;tecome of-,the,. kprimakos this; spring.and' summer?; ;They,appear to'have been /unusually •Scarce 'aboiit-Dunedin; no; doubt they have found superior! attractions elsew-here. !, Perhaps the long-protracted cold and wet weather delayed the flower-, ing. .season, .of-..many,,,,0f .the plants they visit,;,and -alsQ. tended ;to the , scarcity-of.. the. small insects which;''constitute..' *'. large" part of their ■ food. ■Whatever' the /.cause,, I notice that the fuchsias, are!holding itheir flqw'ers-for J'ari .unusually-loAg .time this • sea-. son, as if .waiting for the yisitoTS which are-' needed to fertilise them. " ■■■'■'■ , '": -'J. ■"'■'.' j, -Dunedin,,December 8,; 1898.;/ ! ■: -: ,