THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 113 



ing vine that grows in nearly all uncultivated fields and thickets. 

 V^ery often it makes use of the dog fennel to hold its beautiful 

 flowers up where they may be seen, and there are few more 

 attractive combinations than these tall, feathery plumes of 

 green, studded with large, purple, floral butterflies. The flow- 

 ers are especially attractive on account of the large, orbicular 

 standard, which is from one and a half to over two inches in 

 diameter. It is slightely dished in the center tow^ard the base, 

 and this basin is white, bordered by darker streaks of piu-ple. 

 Sometimes the flowers are such a dark purple that the stripes 

 on each side of the white spot do not show, but the white is 

 very conspicuous, others are more of a lavender, and rarely, 

 almost w^hite. The wings and keel are folded together over 

 the w'hite spot, and are about half as long as the standard. One 

 day I happened to be standing near some of these flow-ers when 

 the bumblebees were making their morning calls, and w^as so 

 fascinated with the operation that I never miss an opportunity 

 to see it all over again. It reminded me of the work of some 

 wonderful automatic machine, like the arm on a printing press 

 that reaches over and removes the sheets of paper as they are 

 printed. The bee aliglits on the purple carpet, walks over to 

 the white mat, and under the point of the hocjd. As he goes 

 under, the hood raises up in front, a long, curved, white arm 

 reaches over and presses a golden brush against his back. Then 

 as he backs out, the brush slides along his back for a short 

 distance, is raised back out of sight in the hood, the hood drops 

 back into place, and the bee is off to the next luitterfly 

 pea. — PV. M. BiiszccU, Barton, Fla. 



