348 NATURAL SCIENCE. may, 



plants, usually, but according to him wrongly, supposed to be fertilised 

 by wind alone. These he states to be, to some extent at least, 

 fertilised by insects. Among them are the vine {Vitis vinifera), 

 mistletoe (Viscuiii album), Castaiiea sativa, Chenopodhnn album, and others. 

 He also discusses many Umbelliferas, and gives several examples of 

 protogynous species (that is, having flowers in which the pistil 

 matures before the stamens), chiefly American, in this usually protan- 

 drous order (that is, having flowers in which the anthers are ready to 

 shed their pollen before the pistil is ready to receive it). Lagerheim 

 describes insect fertilisation (entomophily) in one of the Cyperacese 

 [Dichromena ciliata), found near Panama, which possesses colour as 

 an attraction to the insects. Meehan again mentions a number of 

 flowers that appear to be regularly self-fertilised, e.g.. Eye-bright 

 [Euphrasia officinalis), evening primrose {OEnothera biennis), Cakile 

 amevicana, Trifoliuni hybridum, Malva rohmdifolia (apparently fertilised 

 in the bud), and others. Raunkiaer describes the Danish Cyperacea, 

 stating that they are all protogynous, but especially the hermaphrodite 

 ones. Robertson continues his series of papers on flowers and insects 

 in Illinois, describing the mechanisms and insect visitors of various 

 flowers. One paper deals entirely with Umbelliferae and one with 

 Labiatae, and reviews of these orders are given, summing up their 

 general features. Scott Elliot describes the visitors of a few British 

 plants, but no points of special interest are brought out. The writer 

 has described several species of Phacelia, all showing a method of 

 fertilisation similar to that of Hydrophyllum, but some of them adapted 

 for cross-, some for self- fertilisation. 



We now turn to the larger papers upon flowers and insects. 

 Several such have appeared, notably by Heinsius, Knuth, Macleod, 

 and Verhoeff". Each of these deals fully with a number of plants in 

 some definite locality, and describes the mechanisms and the insect 

 visitors, so that a comparison can be drawn between the various 

 districts. Heinsius describes a number of flowers and their visitors 

 in the Netherlands: 410 visits Avere noted, 341 on plants also 

 investigated by Miiller. In only 140 of these cases were the visitors 

 identical with those noted by Miiller ; but their general character, as 

 to families, was almost the same. Knuth gives a sketch of the 

 flowers and insects of Capri ; only 43 species of the latter were found 

 visiting flowers, while on the mainland there are at least 5,000 ; the 

 flowers are in consequence sparingly visited and depend mainly upon 

 self- fertilisation, in some cases showing modifications in the floral 

 mechanism calculated to ensure this. The same writer describes the 

 flowers and insects of the North Frisian Islands for comparison with 

 the mainland. Verhoeff describes those of Norderney (West Frisian 

 Islands). The results of these writers agree fairly well with one 

 another, and with those of previous workers, and tend to show the 

 relative poorness of the islands in insects and the correlated fact that 

 many flowers usually fertilised by insects have taken more fully to 



