1886.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 29t 



Upon careful comparison of fossils in fragments brought home, 

 the following were identified as exactly agreeing with those 

 figured by Hall, from the Oriskany of New York, viz. : Spirifer 

 arenosus, Spirifer arrectus and Bensselaeria ovoides. 



August 10. 

 Mr. Tiios. Meehan, Vice-President, in the chair. 

 Fifteen persons present. 



Notes on Lilium tigrinum, Gaul. Mr. Meehan remarked that 

 on the Tth of August he was attracted by the large number of 

 honey bees (Italian) among the flowers of Lilium tigrinum. 

 There were hundreds of flowers, and every flower had from one 

 to six bees in them. They were not coming and going with the 

 usual expedition of honey-seeking or pollen-collecting workers, 

 but were taking things leisurely, as when feasting on a ripe peach, 

 or some other soft, sweet, and spongy fruit. It was found that 

 they were feeding or sucking the juices from the papillae that 

 form a ridge at the base of each division of the perianth. These 

 papillje are very numerous, minute and transparent, under a lens 

 resembling ice crystals. They are formed in two lines, but ap- 

 proximate till they resemble a single gray line, extending from 

 the base upwards for an inch in the centre of the segment. 

 Several sj^ecies of butterflies notably some large Papilios, and 

 some smaller Eudasmias, were sharing the repast with the bees. 

 An examination showed that the papillse had been pretty well 

 " chewed " up the term " chewing " being used notwithstanding 

 the seeming impossibility from the structure of the bee's mouth, 

 that it 'can chew in the ordinary acceptatioii of the term. A 

 quantity of this papillose matter, gathered together on the point 

 of a penknife, did not indicate any sweetness, or anything beyond 

 moisture that would be popularly supposed to prove attractive 

 to bees. Inside a flower just ready to expand, a considerable 

 amount of moisture is excreted from the surface of the perianth. 

 In this liquid no sweetness, but some slight astringency could be 

 detected. Not even at the base, where in flowers nectar is usu- 

 ally secreted, could any sweetness be detected. It has been 

 broadly stated that color and fragrance are of use to flowers only 

 as they may serve to attract insects for purposes of poUinization ; 

 and that gaudy flowers have no fragrance. But some gaudy lilies 

 are very sweet, and here we have a gaudy flowered species that 

 seems to have nothing in the way of sweets after an insect has 

 been attracted. Though feasting on the cellular matter, the bees 

 in no way assist in pollination. It is difficult to imagine what 

 relation the bees can have to any good economy in plant life in 

 this instance. The plant produces no fruit in this part of the 

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