298 PROCEEDINaS OP THE ACADEMY OF [1886. 



world ; but this is evidently from some failure of nutrition, for 

 when it is served with its own pollen, or the pollen of other plants 

 or other species, it is alike barren. 



At pages 412, 413 in the Proceedings of the Academy for IStS, 

 he had called attention to the fact that in many species of lily, 

 where the flower is cernuous, the point of bending straightened 

 after fertilization; and the ovarium, pendulous in flower, became 

 erect. There are some in which the flowers are always erect, and 

 they seem to be just as successful in their several economies, as 

 those that are at first cernuous, and afterward erect. At that 

 time, with this reflection, it seemed to him reasonable to suppose 

 that the bending down of the flowers in some species was not a 

 matter of choice with the flower if one might metaphorically use 

 this expression but was the result of a curving of the stem made 

 for some other reason in plant economy than for good to the 

 flower or its special objects alone. But here were some specimens 

 of Lilium tigrinum that had blown over when young. The 

 pedicles from these stems went straight down towards the earth 

 and bore the expanded flower without the slightest curve. The 

 flowers on the erect stems are all on recurved pedicels. Though 

 we are still without light as to what advantage the recurved forms 

 gain over the erect ones, this little incident teaches us, at least, 

 that it is the flower that demands the curve, and not a case of a 

 curve demanding a pendulous flower. 



Fishing Lines and Ligatures from the Silk-glands of Lepi- 

 dopterous Larvae. A communication was received from Miss 

 Adele M. Fielde, stating that in the locality from which she 

 wrote, Swatow, China, the silk-glands are taken from the larvjie 

 of several species of large lepidopterous insects just before tiiey 

 enter the pupa stage, and are made into fishing lines. At this 

 period in the life-history of the insect, the glands are full of the 

 viscid white substance from which the cocoon is to be spun. The 

 silk-glands of a species of Atlas were found to be one yard long, 

 a tenth of an inch in diameter at the free, posterior end, and a 

 hundredth of an inch in diameter at its anterior end. The two 

 glands extend nearly the whole length of the body cavity, on 

 either side of the alimentary canal, lying in loops of varying 

 length, and uniting in a single duct under the mouth, as in the 

 silk-worm, Bomhyx mori. The Cliinese make a transverse cut 

 across the back of the caterpillar, take hold of one of the loops 

 of the silk-gland, draw it out entire, drop it in vinegar to take 

 off its external coat, then stretch it to double or treble its 

 original length, and dry it. A durable filament is thus formed, 

 strong as catgut, and much cheaper. The tenacit}' of the fila- 

 ment is constantly restored by soaking it for a few minutes in 

 warm rice-water, that is, in the water in whicli rice has been 

 boiled for food. The fishermen say that when thus prepared a 



