SUPPLEMENT 



but, as the flower has an open throat, they are not likely to strike the 

 essential organs. Small beetles that have been feeding on pollen in older 

 flowers are sure to effect cross pollination as they enter expanding 

 buds, since the open stigma always guards the entrance to buds. I 

 have but once seen humming birds visit the yellow flowers, and have 

 had no opportunity to watch for night moths ; the red flowers at 

 Catalina are rather frequently visited by humming birds ; that 

 their red color is due to the selection of the birds is, of course, only 

 theory. 



Mimulus luteus, Linn., has the throat much narrower, but I have 

 seen small insects enter without touching the stigmas. This plant is 

 common everywhere along running water, and often grows in masses, 

 but I have never, except in the mountains, seen it visited by bees; in 

 the valleys it frequently fails to mature seed. There is another Mimu- 

 lus common in Southern California, that has large, handsome, yellow 

 flowers; this is M. brevipes, Benth., an extremely viscid annual, 

 found on sandy banks and hillsides ; this, too, secretes very little 

 honey, and I have never seen it visited. Our one hospitable member 

 of this genus seems to be M. cardinalis ; Dougl., a large and exceed- 

 ingly brilliant flower, found along our streams in summer time ; this 

 flower supplies honey abundantly and keeps its anthers and stigma 

 where only humming birds can be of any service. There are, in 

 warm soils, several low annual species which have rather large, rich, 

 magenta flowers, but I have had little opportunity to watch them. 

 The smaller, yellow species that abound along mountain streams and 

 meadows, seem to be quite as parsimonius as their larger yellow 

 cousins, but they have generally some device for narrowing the 

 throat. 



The Collinsia bicolor, Benth., is one of the prettiest of our late 

 spring annuals. In some localities it is known as " innocence, " and 

 I have heard children call it Chinese temple, probably because of the 

 many-storied effect of its flower-cluster. The corolla is a remarkable 

 imitation of the papilionaceous type, the two united upper petals 

 corresponding to banner, the folded lower one to keel, and the lateral 

 to wings. There is a rudimentary fifth stamen that serves as a 

 honey gland. Honey is abundant, and the method of pollination is 

 easily seen ; hive, and other large bees, visit the flowers frequently. 

 Several other species of Collinsia are not rare. The owl's clover, or 

 pink painter's brush, and the scarlet painter's brush, belong to differ- 

 ent but nearly related genera. The former, Orthocarpus purpurascens ', 

 Benth., is very common, sometimes becoming a weed in grain fields ; 

 its common name, clover, is suggested by the color, not by the struct- 



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