1888.] NATURAL SCIENCKS OF PHII.ADKT.PIIIA. 270 



series mature, and ensures that self-fertilization which tlie pollen 

 from the first series may possibly have missed. The only possible 

 aid insects can give is in self-fertilization. 



It is broadly asserted that we owe to the existence of 'insects the 

 various forms and colors of flowers with their grateful odors and 

 sweet secretions. Here we have illustrations of the most dissimilar 

 and contradictory variations in a single genus, variations which 

 cover all the leading points called for by the insect-adai)tationists, 

 and so far as any argument in common use goes, could have occurred 

 with as much reason if not a single insect ever existed. The facts 

 are absolutely inexplicable on any theory of the survival of the 

 fittest in the struggle for life, — but on niv view of the absolute 

 necessity of variation for its own sake, the explanation seems simple 

 enough. 



Variation is inseparable from even the closest in-and-in 

 b)-eeding. We are as fully justified in saying that nature abhors a 

 ■ perpetuity of form as that she abhors in-and-in breeding, and we 

 ■can just as earnestly claim cross-fertilization as an agent in bringing 

 about variation for the sake of variety, as for the reasons usually 

 given, and which we find we cannot apply with consistency in so 

 many cases. 



That cross-fertilization aids variation, we may well believe is a 

 sufficient reason for its existence, — without assuming that it has 

 no other office to jierform. 



Oil the forms of Lonicera Japonica ; tvith notes on the origin of the 

 forms. — The well-known honeysuckle of our gardens, Lonicera Ja- 

 ponica Thunberg, gives three forms of this in general cultivation, 

 supposed to be distinct species. One, known as L. Halleana, intro- 

 duced into America about a quarter of a century ago, I take to be 

 the plant so intended by the author of the original name. It is the 

 plant figured in Botanical Register, plate 70. Another isi. braehy- 

 botri/a Asa Gray, , a well-known form, preferring to creep and root 

 in the ground, to climbing. The third has been long in cultivation 

 as " Chinese woodbine," a favorite for its rosy, sweet flowers, and is 

 the L.flexuosa of Loddiges. All the characters given by the authors 

 of the several names, can be found in difierent stages and conditions 

 of the same ])lant. The segments of the corolla in L. ftexiiona are 

 somewhat narrower than in the other two; and it has a rosy ])ur- 

 ple tint in the stems, leaves and flowers. The leaves in L. brachy. 

 ■botrya are shining, and the hair, being a little shorter, makes the 



