1879.] NATURAL SCIENCES OP PHILADELPHIA. 207 



In this particular species, alone, of those examined, the release of 

 the insect was not effected when it had successfully drawn foot or 

 tongue along the whole length of this anther trap, as the gland 

 which then receives it is firmly attached to the stigma by a broad 

 ligament at its upper end ; and all, excepting possibly the most 

 powerful insects, are still held, while from other species of the 

 family the} 7 Qy off hearing the pollen masses with them. These 

 in turn are caught in similar channels of other flowers, and lodged 

 against the under surface of the stigma, when their pollen tubes 

 are protruded and fertilization effected. 



This, if not necessarily cro.s.s fertilization is, at least, fertiliza- 

 tion by pollen from the same or other flowers placed by an extra- 

 neous force against the stigmatic surfaces; and that the singular 

 arrangement of parts just mentioned, apparently so wonderfully 

 calculated to facilitate it, is made use of, is very evident. In the 

 course of his observations upon a cultivated plant of Asclepias 

 curassavicnm during the season of insect visitation, it was rare 

 to find a mature flower which had not lost some of its glands and 

 pollen masses, and very frequently all were missing. In many of 

 these, the pollinia from other flowers were to be found in the situ- 

 ation before stated ; and it was a very noticeable fact that from 

 50 to 80 per cent, of the flowers in these groups were fertilized, 

 while those from which insects were excluded failed to produce a 

 single fertile follicle. A bee captured upon this plant carried upon 

 its legs and tongue thirty of the glands, representing sixty pollen 

 masses. By far the larger number of the latter had been torn 

 away from the glands since their removal, and possibly were the 

 agents in making fertile nearly the same number of flowers. 



A very singular fact on the opposite side of the account was 

 mentioned by Mr. Meehan in the Botanical Section : that Arau- 

 jio. albeyis rarely fruited when exposed to insects in the open air, 

 but in green-houses produced pods freely. 



On Amber containing Fossil Insects Mr. E. Goldsmith called 



attention to a specimen of amber collected by Mr. Win. L. Maetier 

 at Nantucket Island, Mass., in which were several well-preserved 

 fossil ants, a fly, and probably small species of coleoptera The 

 specimen also contains a dicotyledonous leaf, of a cinnamon brown 

 color, with the edges free, and the impression of another. This 

 was the first specimen of American amber examined by him in 

 which a trace of imbedded insects could be observed, although tins 

 may have been owing to the fact that the others were cretaceous, 

 and therefore, on account of their age, opaque*. 



The amber from Nantucket Island is probably tertiary, and is 

 of a fine pale claret color without being at all variegated. The 

 specimen examined was an irregular mass of about eleven centi- 

 metres in length, somewhat pointed at one end and thicker and 

 rounder at the other, with longitudinal furrows. It is a little 

 heavier than water. The lustre is resinous, but if freshly fractured 



