1900] ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 33 



part contains the five stigmas. As soon as the corolla opens the anthers shrink away from 

 the style and shrivel up, leaving the pollen masses behind them. At the same time the 

 five sections of the style part, and curl up ram's horn fashion. 



Now comes the bee as the minister of Hymen. In this case it is Megachile scorbi- 

 cularis Smith. The insect comes with its abdomen thickly coated on the under side with 

 pollen from other blossoms. As it passes into the flower to get to the nectaries below 

 some grains of the pollen with which it is already charged are scraped ofi by the curled 

 stigmas and adhere to them. The bee secures a further supply of pollen ; but as it 

 passes out of the blossom the under surfaces of the parted style take nothing from its 

 fresh burden. Successive visitors completely clear away the pollen from the pistil. 



The small pale flowers in the umbels of the Wild Oarrot ( Daucus carota), the Water 

 Hemlock (Cicuta maculata), the Cow Parsnip {Herachum lanatum) etc., are resorted to 

 and fertilized by a very host of small flies and ichneumons. 



The English Arum (Arum maculatum) also is fertilized by flies. The whole process 

 of its pollination is described in that admirable work, Percy Groom's " Elementary- 

 Botany," published by Bell & Sons, London — a work which I can strongly recommend. 

 The story is most interesting. The flies, covered with pollen from another arum are 

 drawn to the newly opened spathe by an ill odour which it gives out. They creep down 

 the inside of the spathe through a palisade of fibres which grows from the floral axis and 

 closes in a lower chamber — a veritable fly-trap. In this chamber around the floral axis 

 grow, at the base, a number of sessile ovaries with sessile stigmas ; above them is a zone 

 of sessile anthers. The imprisoned flies fertilize the ovaries with the pollen they have 

 brought in, living the while upon nectar given out by the stigmas. Then the anthers 

 above them ripen, and they become dusted with new pollen. When this is done the 

 enclosing fibres wither, and the flies escape to be again attracted by unpollinated arums. 



The Skunk Cabbage {Symi^locarpus fcetidus) and the Carrion Flower (Smilax 

 herbacea) are malodorous Canadian plants that are fertilized by the aid of flies. Thoreau 

 compared the smell of the latter to that of " a dead rat in a wall." Happily such plants 

 are few in number and fgrow in out-of-the way places, or retain their offensive odors but 

 a short time. They should serve to make us thankfal — they tell us what might have 

 been if God had not adapted the earth so favourably to the requirements and tastes of 

 the children of men. In His great goodness He has filled it with beautiful forms and 

 exquisite colours and harmonious voices and rich perfumes. 



Asa Gray in his excellent little school-book entitled " How Plants Grow," has given 

 reverent expression to some great truths. On page 96 he says : — 



'• Such a system " (The Natural System) " is not a mere convenience for ascertaining 

 the name of a plant, bu*- is an illustration, as far as may be, of the plan of the Creator 

 in the vegetable kingdom. And the .Botanist sees as much to admire and as plain 

 evidences of design, in the various relations of the plants to each other (i e. in their re- 

 semblances and their differences), as he does in the adaptation of one part of a plant to 

 another, and in the various forms under which any one organ may appear. The differ- 

 ent kinds of plants are parts of a great whole, like the members of a body or the pieces 

 of an harmonious but complete edifice or structure ; and this whole is the Vegetable 

 Kingdom." 



Yes ! And when the student considers the bearing of the insect tribes upon this 

 Kingdom, he finds yet further evidences of design, he sees yet more to admire for he 

 obtains a wider view of the plan of the all-wise and beneficent Being whose hand hath 

 made all these things. 



"The preat Creator condescends to write 

 In beams of inextinguishable light 

 His names of wisdom, goodness, power and love, 

 On all that blooms below, or shines above ; 

 To catch the wandering notice of mankind 

 And teach the world if not perversely blind 

 His gracious attributes", and prove the share 

 His offspring hold in His paternal care." 



CowPER, ^' Hope." 



The Rev. Dr. Bethune moved a vote of thanks to the President for his valuable and 

 itteresting address which had afforded much pleasure and instruction to all present. Mr. 

 Dearness, in seconding the motion, drew attention to the fact that the beautiful diagrams 



3 EN. 



