66 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 



bush and grows at the very edge of the clifts, hanging down over them so as to make it 

 almost dangerous to collect it. Near Madison it was found growing all over one hill- 

 side, its large violet-purple heads making it an object of much beauty. Its leaves are 

 so rigid that they soon dry and become very brittle and hence in collecting specimens 

 in flower all the lower leaves are apt to drop oft iind leave only the leafless stock. — 

 J. M. C. 



Recent Periodicals. — American Journal of Science and Arts, October. The only 

 botanical note is an extract from the Buffalo Courier on " Sensitive Stigmas as an aid 

 to cross fertilization of Flowers," by Prof. W. J. Beal, read at the recent meeting of the 

 American Association held at Butfalo. Observations were especially made upon 

 Marfpnio prohoscidea. It seems that the humble bee or common hive bee aids in the 

 cross fertilization of this plant. When the bee, loaded with pollen, alights on the 

 spotted, showy part of the corolla, it crawls in, first hittmg the stigmas. "The.se are 

 sensitive to the touch and close up in five to ten seconds, often before the insect is ready 

 to back out of the flower. If they are not quite closed at that time, the bee shuts them 

 by pushing her back against the back of one of the stigmas. The lower lobe of the 

 flat stigma next to the bee's back is the larger. No pollen can be left as the insect re. 

 treats and a cross of pollen is usually certain. If not freely dusted with pollen the 

 stigmas open again in about fifteen minutes." The Iris is mentioned as acting in a 

 similar way. The stigmas of Minudus rinr/ens are also sensitive and dusted with pol- 

 len bj- small Hymenoptera. The stigmas of MiMulnn hiteus and M. nwHchahis close 

 quickly upon being touched. Teconia radicans, T. f/randiforo and Ufricularia vulgarin 

 are all Uke .Jfartytiia in the peculiarities mentioned. 



ArtiericMa Naturalist. October. — 'Carnivorous Plants," by Prof W. J. Beal, is 

 rather an enumeration of those s)>ecies and genera of plants which catch insects by 

 various contrivances. Commencing with the discovery by Mr. Ellis, in 1768, of the 

 powers of the Venus fly-trap, we are led down through Drosera. Sarre/cenia, Nepenthe, 

 Pinguicula. UtriculaHa, Solanacem, and Silene, to Marty /lia prohoscidea which the author 

 thinks is a true insectivorous plant. This plant, with its curious cross fertilization and 

 insectivorous propensities, may prove to be an exceedingly interesting one. As 

 Martynia is within reach of almost every reader of the Gazette, I have thought it 

 would not be unprofitable to quote some of the observations made u])on it by Prof. 

 Beal, and they can be very easily verified by almost any botanist: 



" I have lately given some attention to the Mart j/nia on account of 1 he great number 

 of small insects which it catches by glandular hairs. On August 8d I counted seventy- 

 six small Diptcra and some other insects on the upi)er side of a young leaf of about 

 four inches average diameter, and two hundred on the under side. The insects are 

 caught on all parts of the plant which are exposed, on the stems, on the calyx and 

 corolla, including even the throat of the corolla. Among a lot of others was one plant 

 about tJiree feet high, spreading three feet in diameter, which according to estimate 

 had seven thousand two hundred small flies on it at one time. The hairs are very nu- 

 merous all over the surface. None of them are sensitive, as I can find. They vary 

 exceedingly in length, from three-sixteenths of an inch to one one-hundredth or even 

 shorter. Some of them have as many as ten cross partitions. The contents of these 

 cells appear quite clear, except one near the top, next to the top cell. This is larger 

 than several of those below, and contains chloro])hyll. It seems to be something like a 

 gland, .\bove this is a larger cell, with peri>endicular stria' along its sides. When 

 fresh and undisturbed the top is nearly spherical and resembles a sm:dl droji of dew. 

 The secretion is quite copious and exceedingly vLscid, with an unpleasant odor. I 

 placed some small fragments of raw beef on the glands one morning, but the sun 

 seemed to dry them up, mucii as it did those left on blades of grass which had no 

 glands. I placed some very minute portions on the glands in a spot sheltered from the 



