370 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1892, 



pels appear perfect, but are hollow by reason of not having been 

 fertilized. In some flowers the stamens appear antheriferous, and 

 this fact has probably led to the belief in hermaphroditism, but I 

 have never found one to be polliniferous. 



Close inspection this season of some twenty-four plants of Bhus 

 copallina, led to observations of a novel character, worth 

 recording. There were twenty-two female, and only two male 

 plants. There are three pistils in the female flower. One of 

 these is larger and deeper colored than the other two. These 

 two finally abort, only a single carpel reaches perfection. The 

 brown papery anthers are devoid of pollen, and have either no 

 filaments or very short ones. Between the staminate cycla and that 

 forming the gynoecium, are glands, seemingly an undeveloped series 

 of stamens. These exude a great abundance of sweet liquid, which 

 attracts honey-bees and other insects in large numbers. I have 

 counted twenty honey-bees at work at once on a single panicle, 

 many of them falling victims to the soldier beetle, Reduvius novena- 

 rius, which finds the Rhus a fertile hunting ground. 



The male flower is especially distinct from the female in having 

 no honey glands. The highly polliniferous anthers are on five long 

 exserted filaments. These filaments are erect, and the anthers 

 approach, forming a sort of crown, as if to protect the pistils which 

 are in a depauperate condition beneath. The profusion of golden 

 pollen is very conspicuous in these male flowers. In the female 

 flowers the sepals are ovate and spreading, while in the males they 

 are lance-linear and recurved. The rachis and pedicels are more 

 slender and longer than in the female. 



Considering the abundance of pollen, it would seem almost certain 

 that at some time or other pollen-gathering bees would visit the 

 male flowers, but whenever I saw them at work, it was only on the 

 female plants. The abundance of liquid from the floral glands 

 seemed an inducement to greater exertion, and watching these 

 creatures on Rhun copallina, gave me, for the first time, the 

 impression that there were times when these ever industrious crea- 

 tures make special effort. 



The subject of the relation of insects to flowers naturally thrust 

 itself on my attention during these observations. Sweet secretions 

 in these flowers certainly can have no significance as a means of 

 insect attraction for the purposes of cross-fertilization, or of fertili- 

 zation of any character. Insects seem to serve no object of the 



