y? It would really be a very great
favour and kindness.

LETTER 590. TO J.D. HOOKER.

(590/1. The genera Scaevola and Leschenaultia, to which the following
letter refers, belong to the Goodeniaceae (Goodenovieae, Bentham &
Hooker), an order allied to the Lobeliaceae, although the mechanism
of fertilisation resembles rather more nearly that of Campanula. The
characteristic feature of the flower in this order is the indusium, or,
as Delpino (590/2. Delpino's observations on Dichogamy, summarised by
Hildebrand in "Bot. Zeitung," 1870, page 634.) calls it, the "collecting
cup": this cuplike organ is a development of the style, and serves the
same function as the hairs on the style of Campanula, namely, that of
taking the pollen from the anthers and presenting it to the visiting
insect. During this stage the immature stigma is at the bottom of the
cup, and though surrounded by pollen is incapable of being pollinated.
In most genera of the order the pollen is pushed out of the indusium by
the growth of the style or stigma, very much as occurs in Lobelia or
the Compositae. Finally the style emerges from the indusium (590/3.
According to Hamilton ("Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales," X., 1895, page
361) the stigma rarely grows beyond the indusium in Dampiera. In the
same journal (1885-6, page 157, and IX., 1894, page 201) Hamilton
has given a number of interesting observations on Goodenia, Scaevola,
Selliera, Brunonia. There seem to be mechanisms for cross- and also
for self-fertilisation.), the stigmas open out and are pollinated from
younger flowers. The mechanism of fertilisation has been described by
F. Muller (590/4. In a letter to Hildebrand published in the "Bot.
Zeitung," 1868, page 113.), and more completely by Delpino (loc. cit.).

Mr. Bentham wrote a paper (590/5. "Linn. Soc. Journal," 1869, page 203.)
on the style and stigma in the Goodenovieae, where he speaks of Mr.
Darwin's belief that fertilisation takes place outside the indusium.
This statement, which we imagine Mr. Bentham must have had from an
unpublished source, was incomprehensible to him as long as he confined
his work to such genera as Goodenia, Scaevola, Velleia, Coelogyne,
in which the mechanism is much as above described; but on examining
Leschenaultia the meaning became clear. Bentham writes of this
genus:--"The indusium is usually described as broadly two-lipped,
without any distinct stigma. The fact appears to be that the upper less
prominent lip i