46 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



the flowers and then pounces upon its unsuspecting prey 

 while it is collecting pollen or sucking honey. 



Thepresence of these spiders, which are (juite common, 

 is often indicated by a dead insect lying upon the surface 

 of the inflorescence. Later I found another instance, where 

 a bumblebee had been captured, and also such large flies 

 as those belonging to the genera Archytas and Therio- 

 plectes, or such a dangerous enemy as the wasp Vespa dia- 

 bolica. I met with one case where a small butterfly 

 {Melitfea tharos) had been taken. 



It would be interesting to know how these spiders 

 learned that they might make use of the attractive powers 

 of flowers in getting their food supply, and also whether 

 flower- visiting insects have yet learned to fear them. 

 Apparently these spiders have acquired this new habit as 

 the result of observation and experience. It is also pos- 

 sible that under certain conditions in localities the\^ might 

 become so numerous as to endanger the welfare of the 

 flowers by hindering their pollination. 

 Waldoboro, Maine. 



RANDOM NOTES. 



BY PAULINE KAUFMAN. 



OPPOSITE the railroad station at Como, N. J., I found 

 on August third, a wild rose bush bearing a single 

 deep red rose. The setting of the flower consisted of four 

 branches of green leaves of which the uppermost was one 

 and a half times larger in every way than the lower ones 

 and serrated in such a manner as to resemble in shape the 

 mitten-like form of the sassafras leaf. Growing through 

 the heart of the rose was a prickly stem with six branches 

 of green leaves, one of them having nine leaflets, each more 

 than an inch long. I put the rose in a glass of water 

 where the leaves kept on developing, and a pink sheath 

 protectingly followed up each branch above the heart of 

 the rose. It seemed as though elongated petals were 

 formed above each other around these branches. How far 

 this development would have reached, I cannot tell, for, 



