278 



TJfE GARDENER'S MUX 77/ /.Y 



\^Siptt'i/i/>i'r, 



forms should be found on (he same plant. Thej' 

 may bo larger or sniallci- llian tlic infantile 

 f(»rni (often but half an inrii lonu;,) I'Ut still they 

 will 1)0 perfeot types of the true Dnrlingfonia 

 leaf— the twisted petiole, the swoUinj,', li.u;ht- 

 adniitting hood, the small, round aperture faeing 

 downward, the enormous, depending, curling, 

 llaming, and, in the season, honey-smeared, two- 

 parted lamina or true leaf. 



The foiu'th year's leaves and all subsequent 

 are all of the vaulted, big-mustached form — the 

 l)lant is of age, is mature; but occasionally on 

 ollsets and runners from weak plants at any age, 

 the infant form of leaf is found, but no graded, 

 transitional stages have yet been detected, 

 though much research has been applied in this 

 particular direction, as bearing upon the popular 

 theory of evolution. The linear, strict petiole, 

 with upturned mouth and long, naked, midrib, 

 always accompanies the infant form, while the 

 adult leaf is never deficient in the least charac- 

 teristic feature of its wondrous organism. 



I should have noted before, the manner of 

 vei-nation or budding. In the bud, the petioles 

 of both kinds of leaves first take form and ex- 

 tension. The midrib of the infant is but a 

 minute, subulate spur; the future mustache of 

 the adult form is a pair of involuted, close-rolled 

 awl-shaped horns, not unlike those waxen pilose 

 appendages which the incipient dandy sometimes 

 displays beneath his nose. 



THE SACCHARINE SECRETIOX. 



Not at all times of the season is a prominent 

 characteristic observable. For several years I 

 did not detect one of the most distinctive fea- 

 tures of this insect trap, the saccharine secretion. 

 This phenomenon was not certainly known for 

 several years after the discovery of the plant. 

 On the 4th of July, '75, in company with Mrs. 

 Austin and family, I went to celebrate the na- 

 tion's holiday beside our peculiarly Californian 

 curiosity, located in a large, oval bog in the 

 center of a grove of alders. Much to our sur- 

 prise, the tall, crowded cobra heads, uprearcd 

 among snowy Parnassias, azure Erigerons, yel- 

 low Nartheciums and purple asters appeared, 

 dripping with glistening drops of honey. The 

 catching operation was in full progress. 



This saccharine fluid, of the consistence of 

 honey, is secreted by glands of the hood, both 

 without and within, standing in beads along the 

 margins of the expanded cells, the translucent 

 windows of the balloon-like hood. It is often 

 so abundant as to unite and flow down, that on j 



! the inside into the forward, depressed part of the 

 I hood, that on the outside smearing the mustaches 

 completely, in addition to a similar secretion of 

 (he latter. Xot only was the curling, crimson- 

 stroakod nuistache smeared throughout, but the 

 l)order of the wing in its spiral curve half-round 

 j down to the root was gemmed with a line of 

 honey globules. These globules in the oldest 

 leaves were crystallized into sugar-plums, form- 

 ing a not-to-be resisted decoy to the groundling 



below. 



(To be Continued.) 



CROSS-FERTILIZATION IN SABBATIA 

 ANCULARIS. 



BY LESTER F. WARD, WASIIIXCn'ON, D. C. 



This handsome flower, which is quite common 

 in the vicinity of Washington, and which blooms 

 about the end of July, presents a device for the 

 prevention of self-fertilization, which has not, 

 it is believed, been met with in any other species 

 of plant, and so far as I am aware, has not yet 

 been described. 



The flower has five stamens with elongated, 

 introrse anthers, which are abruptly curved out- 

 ward near the summit, and a shigle style about 

 the length of the stamens terminated by a forked 

 stigmatic portion nearl}' as much longer. These 

 branches of the style which are stigmatic on the 

 inside are at first closely twisted together in 

 such a manner as to conceal the stigmatic 

 surfaces. Later they untwist and present a 

 simply bifurcate appearance, but this does not 

 take place until the anthers have shed most of 

 their pollen , b}- which the advantages of dicho- 

 gamy are in a measure secured, the pollen of 

 the later flow'ers being conveyed by insects to 

 the stigmas of earlier ones. But in addition to 

 this, the style is in all cases found to be abruptly 

 bent at the base, so as to form an angle of from 

 forty-five to ninety degrees with the perpendi- 

 cular, carrying the stigmas entirely away from 

 the stamens, and usually locating them between 

 the lobes of the corolla. And as if this were 

 not enough, the stamens also are found in a great 

 majorit}'^ of cases to be bent in the opposite di- 

 rection, so as to lean more or less conspicuously 

 away from the center, while in many of the 

 flowers the filaments lie flat down upon the 

 floral envelopes, the style at the same time oc- 

 cupying a horizontal position on the other side. 

 At a later stage, and after fertilization has been 

 effected, both the stamens and the style partially 

 or corapletelj' regain the erect position. 



