. A naturalist's wanderings in the Eastern archipelago; a narrative of travel and exploration from 1878 to 1883. Natural history. 80 A NATURALIST'S WANDERINGS flowers, while the longitudiual section on the opposite page shows the complicate system of galleries—some of them papillated—inhabited by the ants. Obserying the ants often employed in carrying out whitish particles, I at first conjectured that the irritation of their digging out a dwelling must have induced the swelling of the bulb; and, curious to see the modus operandi of its commence- ment, I decided to raise a few of them from seed
. A naturalist's wanderings in the Eastern archipelago; a narrative of travel and exploration from 1878 to 1883. Natural history. 80 A NATURALIST'S WANDERINGS flowers, while the longitudiual section on the opposite page shows the complicate system of galleries—some of them papillated—inhabited by the ants. Obserying the ants often employed in carrying out whitish particles, I at first conjectured that the irritation of their digging out a dwelling must have induced the swelling of the bulb; and, curious to see the modus operandi of its commence- ment, I decided to raise a few of them from seed. This turned my attention to their flowers and fruit. The flowers are pro- duced in deep spine-protected pits on the axis surmounting. YOUNG PLAKT OP MTRMECODIA TCBEEOSA. the bulb, and are remarkable for the extreme rapidity with which the cycle of their functional changes are performed. The pellucid white flower appears, and is followed by an orange, watery fruit, whose seeds ripen and often germinate in the little pits where they grow, all within the space of thirty- six hours. Some years later Dr. Burck, of the Buitenzorg Gardens, most kindly showed me specimens and microscopic slides illustrating some interesting observations * he had made on these flowers : that the corolla segments rarely open (though a slight touch * These have since been published in the ' Annales du Jardin Botanique du Buitenzorg,' vol. iv., p. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Forbes, Henry O. (Henry Ogg), 1851-1932. New York, Harper
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectnaturalhistory, booky
