80 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



scientist has recently noted something of this kind in travelhng 

 through a wooded country where the air was filled with pollen 

 from the pine. The corona consisted of rosy rings about the 

 sun shortly before it set. It is well known that when the 

 pines bloom the pollen is produced in great abundance. This 

 is often blown long distances by the wind and when it settles 

 occasionally gives rise to the impression that there has been a 

 shower of sulphur. It seems that on occasion the pollen may 

 also be abundant enough to produce a meterological effect or- 

 dinarily attributed to water or meteoric dust. 



Pollination in Day Lily. — A good many things in 

 nature are overlooked because they are so common. We 

 think we must study orchids and other rare flowers to observe 

 anything out of the ordinary in methods of pollination when 

 there are plenty of instances just as interesting close at hand. 

 Take the day lilies (Hemerocallis), for instance, which are 

 abundant in nearly all old fashioned gardens. Unlike the 

 orchids, salvias, snapdragons and a host of others with corol- 

 las variously modified to secure cross pollination, the day lilies 

 have a practically regular corolla which, though turned some- 

 what to one side is not sufficient of itself to guide the insects 

 along a single path where they may be covered with pollen. 

 Moreover the flowers are ephemeral and in consequence the 

 stamens and stigmas are ready for pollination at the same 

 time. And yet the seemingly impossible is accomplished and 

 the flowers cross-pollinated by an ingenious arrangement of 

 the essential organs. An examination of the flower will show 

 the stamens and pistil projecting from the flower with their 

 tips turned upward. In this position the anthers face the inter- 

 ior of the flower while the stigma extends further outward. 

 When a bee or hawk moth visits the blossom it first blunders 

 against the waiting stigma and it is not until it backs out of 

 the flower that it encounters the stamens and is dusted with 

 pollen. 



