330 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1887. 



rapidly, not, however, i-eaching quite the length attained by the sta- 

 mens and pistil. 



The observation worth recording here is that the bright corolla 

 is often referred to in modern times, as being colored in order to 

 attract insects to aid in the work of cross-fertilization. The col- 

 ored corolla does not appear here until fertilization has been effected, 

 which is evidenced by the recurving of the pistil. The orange-gold 

 of the anthers would of themselves be sufficiently attractive ; and the 

 later effect of the vexillum, wholly superfluous, if mere attraction 

 were the sole end nature had in view. Although the pistil matures 

 a whole day before the stamens mature, the stigma receives the pol- 

 len often from the stamen of the same flower, or from those in the 

 immediate vicinity, and which matured the day before, which is self- 

 fertilization, cross-fertilization being, according to Darwin, the re- 

 ception of pollen from another plant. The flowers seem very grate- 

 ful to the pollen gathering insects. After cleaning out the orange- 

 colored pollen, from the woolly linings of the cell, by the insect, the 

 empty white anthers, gave an additional interest to the orange and 

 blue of the more perfect flowers. 



The explanation of the late growth of the vexillum is evidently 

 that growth is reflex from the central axis downwards, as Ave see 

 in Liatris and other Comjjositce. After the axis, as represented by the 

 pistil, has finished its growth, the spiral uncoils downward, and per- 

 mits of the axial growths that the floral parts represent, beginning 

 with the most advanced stamen, and running back to the petal, 

 which of course would be the outermost verticil in the coil. 



Oxybaphus Jdrsutus Oxybaphus, says an old writer of the Linnean 

 School "is a genus of the class Triaiidria." "The only known species 

 is Oxybaphus viscosus. It is a native of Peru, and is nearly allied to 

 Mirabilis, under which genus it is ranged by Cavanilles, but was 

 made a distinct genus by L'Heritier, on account of its only having 

 three stamina, and the calyx enlarged and peltate, attending the 

 fruit." In those times to have three stamens was an essential char- 

 acter of the genus. In Gray's Manual, 0. nyctagineus being the 

 only one described, the genus has "stamens mostly three." In Coul- 

 ter's Flora of Colorado "stamens usually three" is the record. As it 

 is stated of Mirabilis by Coulter "stamens usually five," it is evident 

 modern authors, equally with the founder of the genus, look to the 

 number of stamens as in some measure a generic character. So far 

 as I can find in works to hand, the number of stamens is not specially 



