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May 16 - 62. Leith Hill Place - Dichogamy

All common Rhododendron & Azalea have nectary in fold of upper spotted petal & pistil & stamens (sometimes separated from each other by a space) upturned & bent into gangway of nectary.

Rhod. glaucous (Hooker says) immense white flower hangs out horizontally or little depressed - smells sweeter at night (visited by moths) with pistil & stamens upturned as above; but with 2 nectaries (filled with much honey) in fold of two lower petals (Oddly these two lower petals are faintly spotted, showing some relation between spots & nectary.) This seems contradiction to my law; but stamens & pistils are very long & from weight hang down, so as to lie not in

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There is some irregularity & abortion in these flowers - in any case nectar in 3 lower receptacles. - I turned flower upside down, but nectar did not run down - Certainly it is secreted by lower receptacles.

I have just opened whole corolla examined a flower in which certainly 3 of the folds secreted nectar, but generally 2: if upper one secreted it would be all the better on account of upturned pistil.

I have opened another corolla; certainly nectar secreted from 2 lower folds of corolla alone - // another with 2 & another with 3 secreting spots // another with 2 // another with 2, but one of them was the uppermost of the 5 folds in gangway of upturned pistil. - // another with 2// another with 4!! another with all 5!!!

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centre of flower, but on lower side; hence an large insect visiting the nectary on either side would almost certainly touch the anther & pistil, & they do lie in gangway.

In a Sikkim small Azalea-like Rhod, (as with the Bhoutan R. Boothii??) the pistil is bent irregularly to lower side of flower, apparently quite out of gangway, but the stamens are bent upwards: the abundant nectar is not secreted by petals, but by germen or base of anthers: any how it surrounds whole germen & is contained within the base of the stamens by the hairs on filaments which interlock - Hence insect in searching round the germen could have to brush against anthers & stigma though pointing in opposite directions.