File:Plants of New Zealand (1906) (14597532908).jpg

Identifier: plantsofnewzeala1906lain (find matches)
Title: Plants of New Zealand
Year: 1906 (1900s)
Authors: Laing, R. M. (Robert Malcolm), b. 1865 Blackwell, E. W. (Ellen W.)
Subjects: Plants
Publisher: Christchurch : Whitcombe and Tombs, Ltd.
Contributing Library: The LuEsther T Mertz Library, the New York Botanical Garden
Digitizing Sponsor: The LuEsther T Mertz Library, the New York Botanical Garden

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e.^.,most of our Compositae, Veronicas,Pimeleas, etc., are white). There is no doubt that the prevalence of white in the Florais in some way connected with the paucity of insects in NewZealand. It has been said, that not only are our insectspecies few in numbers, but there are few individuals of eachspecies. Such a broad statement, as this, is, however,unwarranted. It is true that we have only fifteen kinds ofbutterfly, and that several of these are rare, so that theseinsects play a smaller part in the work of pollination herethan elsewhere. However, we have a considerable number offorms of night-flying moths, several of the families being wellrepresented, and it is generally supposed that they pollinatewhite flowers, which are more conspicuous in the gloom thancoloured ones. It also seems probable that flies play a largerpart in the work of pollination here than they do elsewhere.Too little, however, is known at present about the indigenous BUTTERCUP, ANEMONE, AND CLEMATIS FAMILY 163
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Fig. 46. Clematis indivisa—Staiiiinate flowers (§ nat. size). Meek clematis, tree dweller, child of dew.Nursling of light and air !Slow trailing stars, or showers of misty suns,Whence is the hand thou reachest wistfullyFeeling, on earth, for something not of earth ? Johannes Andersen. 164 PLANTS OF NEW ZEALAND species in the lower orders of insects, to enable one to speakdefinitely about them and their relationships to flowers. TJn isexua / fio/ver.s. Perhaps in no other part of the world is there such a largepercentage of unisexual flowers to be found, as in NewZealand. Genera which are hermaphrodite elsewhere, areoften unisexual here. Out of 483 species examined Mr. G.M. Thomson found 46 per cent.—a remarkably highproportion—more or less unisexual. Of the remaining 54per cent., probably only a few are self-pollinated, although theflowers are hermaphrodite. There is reason to believe that insome few cases (e.g., the willow and the oak), the unisexualcondition is the primitive

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