1895.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 559 



'' Bees alight sometimes on the corolla, touching styles and stamens, 

 crushing them all up together with the styles, and probably causing 

 self- as much as cross-ferlilization." 3 This in spite of the fact that 

 the Mower of this plant is to all appearance well adapted to secure 

 cross-fertilization. I should not be surprised if, sooner or later, upon 

 close examination, it would be found that in many cases where this 

 adaptation to insects seems so perfect, the insect visitors aid in secur- 

 ing self-fertilization, as these observations seem to indicate. 



III. Peculiar position of stamens aad pistils. In the preceding 

 paragraph I have already briefly referred to the flowers of Kalmia 

 latifolia, perhaps the best illustration of such an arrangement. The 

 wheel-shaped corolla, with the ten pockets in which the anthers are 

 held, is sufficiently familiar to require no further description. 

 Stamens and pistil mature at the same time. The anthers are held 

 in the pockets of the corolla ; when visited by insects they are set 

 free and the pollen is thrown with considerable force from the anther 

 sacs through the orifices. As I have remarked before I have 

 observed repeatedly that pollen was thrown upon the stigma of the 

 same flower. Careful observations should decide the question, how 

 far in such cases, where there is such a peculiar arrangement in the 

 position of stamens and pistils in regard to each other, close fertiliza- 

 tion is possible. 



Even should it be impossible in any case that autogamy, or close 

 fertilization, is effected, it must be remembered that whenever a plant 

 bears many, or clusters of flowers, the chances of cross-fertilization are 

 reduced. Insects in such cases may visit many flowers of the same 

 plant, but this is 1 not cross-fertilization in Darwin's sense of the term. 



IV. Dichogamy or difference in the time of maturity of stamens 

 and pistils. This appears to me the most suggestive and interesting 

 phase of this intricate problem. From a teleological point of view, 

 i. e., if we look for a purpose, we must agree with Darwin and his 

 followers that this is one of the most remarkable adaptations favor- 

 ing cross-fertilization. Modern science insists, however, that we 

 must use inductive methods, and it is the tendency of the present day 

 to search rather for the causes than for an underlying purpose. If, 

 on the one hand, we affirm that every organ is modified to serve some 

 particular use, we cannot believe, on the other hand, that such modifi- 



3 Ibid., 'p. 57. 



