Vol. ¥, No. 2,] Bunierin or THe Torrey Boranicat Ciup. [New York, Feb,, 1874, 
$75. Variations.—I saw in the Bulletin a notice of an Iris 
which changed its color. Ihave in my little garden a root of J. 
Germanica, a fleur-de-lis of the white variety. There are no 
blue ones in the neighborhood that. I know. Four years ago 
_ one of the outer divisions of the perianth of one flower was dark 
blue. The next year one whole flower was dark blue, two other 
flowers on the same stalk were white. Inthe following year all 
the flowers on one stalk were blue, and all the flowers on the other 
stalks white. This year it bore only white flowers. 
Tam led to question the permanence of single variations (but 
not the permanence of the forms of variation) from haying been 
unable to procure the same variety for two seasons in succession 
in the same place, Forinstance, our common Sensitive Fern varies 
into var. obtusilobata, but the variation is not permanent. I often 
find it, and once found a large bed of it, in every possible inter- 
mediate form. ‘he next year going to look for some Adder-tongue 
ferns growing near, I looked earefully for the obtusilobata, but 
_ not one appeared. Some remarkable variations of Aspidium aeros- 
 tichoides T have found the second year perfect forms of our finest 
evergreen fern. The Adder-tongue fern too varies very much. On — 
the high cold sand plains of North Elba it is two or three inches 
_ high and perfectly orbicular. _In Elizabethtown, Essex County, I 
_ foundit ten inches high, ovate and very fine. Here it is quite plen- 
_ ty inswamps and pastures, but is so slender and acute as to be diffi- 
_ eult of detection among the grass. : L. A. M, 
$76. Apocynum.—I have been much interested in your notes on 
Apocynum. [It grows abundantly about us and I have made it a 
point to observe it. I have repeatedly found insects caught by the 
flowers, mostly small coleoptera; they were all dead when [ ob- 
served them. The flowers are visited by the common rose beetle 
among otier insects. This beetle is very destructive to many of 
_ our wild flowers this year—the Azalea viscosa, Ceanothus Ameri- 
 ¢ana, and Pogonia ophioglossoides being all subject fo its ravages. — 
In reading Daryin’s “ Loves of the Flowers” I find the following, — 
which may be of interest in the above connection. “Inthe Apocy- 
“num androsemifolium the anthers converge over the nectaries, 
“which consist of five glandular oval corpuscles surrounding the — 
_ “germ, and at the same time admit air to the nectaries at the mter- 
~“Stices between each anther. But when a fly inserts its proboscis 
“between these anthers to plunder the honey, they converge closer, 
“and with such violence as to detain the fly, which thus generally - 
“perishes. This account was related to me by R. W. Darwin, Esq., — 
“of Elston, in Nottinghamshire, who showed me the plant in flower, 
“July 2d, 1788, with a fly thus held fast by theend of its proboscis, 
2 on wastrel secon by a magnifying lens, and which in vain repeated- 3 
“ly struggled to disengage itself, till the converging anthers were 
_ “separated by means of a pin; on some days he had observed that _ 
“almost every flower of this elegant plant had a fly init thusen-  — 
“tangled; and a few weeks afterwards favored me with hisfurther = 
_ “observations on this subject. pe 
_ “*My Apocynum is not yet out of flower. Ihave often visited it 
