152 ERYTHEA. 
expanded and the stigmas receptive from the first. Figs. E 
and F' show the relative size of the fertile and sterile anthers. 
The honey glands of the pistillate flowers are somewhat 
larger than those of the hermaphrodite flowers and the 
corollas are usually smaller. Wherever a patch of Nemo- 
phila insignis is seen the female plants can be easily distin- 
guished by a more robust habit of growth and smaller deep 
blue flowers. The plants with perfect flowers are more 
abundant and with their more showy corollas almost banish 
their specialized companions into obscurity. 
An investigation of many plants of Nemophila insignis 
collected when the first fruits were ripe and flowers still pres- 
ent did not show, as expected, that the fruits of the pistillate 
flowers contained more or larger seeds or indeed any struc- 
tural superiority. If there is any, the evidence is in favor of 
the hermaphrodite flowers. An unlooked-for, but easily ex- 
plained difference, however, became evident. It was found 
that the pistillate flowers ripened fruit earlier. 
The reason of this will be understood when it is re- 
membered that the pistillate flowers have receptive stigmas 
from the first and so get the start of the hermaphrodite 
flowers. This habit of the plant may have arisen from the 
necessity for ripening the fruit before the dry season. 
Nemophila is one of the earliest annuals and without quali- 
ties for resisting drought. It comes up early in the spring, 
flourishes awhile in great profusion and, except in some 
favored spots, is entirely gone before the hills turn brown. 
The following table shows the results of the examination 
of the fruits. Besides the hermaphrodite flowers in the table, 
a great many were examined that had fruit too young to be 
sure of the number of seeds. Of these I kept no account. 
Very few plants with pistillate flowers were found that had 
not some pods with well formed seeds. Each group of 
figures enclosed in parentheses represents the number of seeds 
found in the almost ripe capsules of a single plant, each fig- 
ure representing a single capsule. 
