Art. XXX.—Note on the Pollination of Rhabdothamnus Solandri A. Cunn.

By D. Petrie, M.A., Ph.D.

[Read before the Auckland Institute, 11th December, 1912.]

In a short paper in vol. 35 of the Transactions I described the mode of pollination in this species, and came to the conclusion that the flowers are pollinated by the agency of birds, though no direct evidence of this was at the time available. It is with much satisfaction that I can now submit such evidence. Mr. M. Fraser, of New Plymouth, who spent his boyhood in the Upper Waipu district of Auckland Peninsula, writes me that in the early days of settlement this shrub grew in great abundance on the loamy river-flats of the Waipu district. He again and again observed the tui visit its flowers to feed on the abundant nectar secreted by them. His attention was specially attracted by the patient and dexterous efforts of the bird to maintain its foothold on the slender naked branches, and its cleverness in swinging its body and twisting and stretching its neck and fluttering its wings till it succeeded in inserting its bill into the flower. The struggle that led to the sucking of the nectar amply explains the occasional rupture of the corolla, to which I appealed as evidence that the flowers are pollinated by birds. Since the original paper was written I have never lost an opportunity of examining the flowers of this interesting plant, and have seen nothing to conflict with the account there given of the remarkable mechanism that makes auto-pollination impossible. It is one of the most beautiful adaptations to prevent auto-pollination that I am acquainted with.