170 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1894. 



On cutting across the tube of a white corolla near the base, and 

 then gently stripping the flower downwardly a large globule of nec- 

 tar protrudes. The same process executed on the older or yellow 

 flower, gives about the same quantity as also does the faded flower 

 of the third day. In the dried flower, taken before much shrivelling 

 had occurred, nearly as much nectar was found. The completely 

 shrivelled and twisted flower could not be "stripped" of its secre- 

 tion in this way, but it was certainly present and as abundant. The 

 bees carefully sought what would have been the mouth of the corolla, 

 and then extracted the sweets from that point. It soon became evi- 

 dent that the shrivelling and contracting of the tube of the corolla 

 acted in the same manner as the thumb-nail and finger in "stripping," 

 lessening the diameter of the tube, and forcing the nectar towards the 

 mouth, and within the reach of the visiting insect. 



As noted, the bees collecting nectar from these dead flowers, never 

 visited the fresh opening ones; while the few visiting the fresh 

 Howers never visited the dead or dying ones ; a very careful watch of 

 half an hour satisfied me on this point. It was noted that the latter 

 took considerable time and much labored effort with each flower. 

 There was an average of fifteen seconds to each flower, a very long 

 time for the average honey-making bee. Those working on the dry- 

 ing flowers made no more than the ordinary effort of bees with fresh 

 flowers. It was difficult to understand why in the same variety of 

 insect should each have its own line of procedure. If it should be 

 suggested that bees could profit by experience, and that those which 

 confined themselves to the freshly opened flowers were young bees 

 that had yet much to learn, there still remains the fact that they did 

 not profit by the experience of the older bees. Sometimes almost 

 side by side, it might be supposed that any creature that coujd jjrofit 

 by experience, would want to know what the one picking at a dried 

 flower had found. 



The relation between insects and flowers obtrudes itself here. 

 Many plants, as I have placed on record, shed their pollen and cover 

 the stigma before the opening of the corolla. Whether the stigma is 

 in receptive condition or not, the pollen remains there till it is, and we 

 may regard all such as "arranged for self-fertilization," if, indeed, 

 there is any such special arrangement in the vegetable world wholly 

 with this view, or with the special view of cross-fertilization. But in 

 this honey -suckle the anther sacs burst immediately on expansion and 



