BORAGINEAE 



141 



Fig. 279. MyosoHs inUrmedia, Link 

 (after Herm. Muller). (i) Flower partly- 

 dissected from the side ( x 7). {2) Lateral 

 view of a stamen (still more strongly mag- 

 nified), to show the broad outwardly bent 

 appendage of the connective, a, bright- 

 blue corolla-lobes; b, radial white streaks; 

 <r, yellow centre of the corolla ; d, anthers ; 

 e, stigma; J", nectary. 



2005. M. coUina Hoffm. (=M. hispida SMechi.). (Herm. Muller, 'Fertilisa- 

 tion,' p. 416, ' Weit. Beob./ II, pp. 18-19.) The mechanism of the minute 

 homogamous, bright blue flowers of this species 



agrees essentially with that of M. intermedia. The 

 anthers are contained in the short (scarcely 2 mm.) 

 corolla-tube, and converge together over the stigma, 

 upon which they ultimately drop pollen. Should 

 there be insect-visits, however, crossing takes place 

 in the following way, according to Hermann Miil- 

 ler. The yellow pocket -like involutions of the 

 corolla so narrow the opening of the flower that the 

 proboscis of an insect can only be inserted exactly 

 in the centre. The appendages of the connectives 

 end ^ mm. below the entrance, but guide the pro- 

 boscis between them along the axis of the flower, 

 until it inevitably comes into contact with the stigma, 

 and glides over its rounded surface, to which pollen brought from a previously visited 

 flower will adhere, before the nectar is reached. When the proboscis is withdrawn 

 it brushes past the inner surfaces of the anthers, and dusts itself with pollen. 



Visitors. The following were recorded by the observers, and for the localities 

 stated. 



Herm. Miiller (Westphalia), a Muscid (Anthomyia sp.), skg. Borgstette (Meck- 

 lenburg), the bee Halictus zonulus Sm. 5, skg. VerhoefF (Norderney), the bee 

 Halictus minutus K. 5, skg. MacLeod (Flanders), a Lepidopterid (Bot. Jaarb. 

 ! Dodonaea, Ghent, v, 1893, P- SS^)- Schletterer (Pola), the Scoliid Scolia hirta Schr. 



2006. M. versicolor Sm. (Herm. Muller, 'Weit. Beob.,' Ill, pp. 17-18; 

 MacLeod, Bot. Jaarb. Dodonaea, Ghent, v, 1893, pp. 338-9; Kirchner, 'Flora v, 



j Stuttgart,' pp. 562-3.) The newly opened flowers of this species are bright yellow 

 in colour, and adapted to cross-pollination : subsequently they become blue, and in 

 this stage automatic self-pollination is inevitable. In the first condition the corolla- 

 tube is only 2 mm. long, and the fully developed style (3 mm. in length) projects 

 beyond the anthers inserted into its upper part, while the mature stigma even 

 protrudes from the flower. As the limb of the corolla changes to sky-blue the 

 corolla-tube elongates until the anthers attain the level of the stigma and deposit pollen 

 upon it. 



Visitors. The following were recorded by the observers, and for the localities 

 stated. 



Herm. Mtiller, a humble-bee (Bombus agrorum F., only skg. for a short time), 

 2 bees (Halictus sexnotatus K, 5, skg., and H. zonulus Sm. $, do.), and 2 hover-flies 

 i(Rhingia rostrata Z., skg. persistently, and Syritta pipiens Z., skg.). MacLeod 

 (Flanders), a bee (Andrena sp.) and a butterfly (Pieris sp.) (Bot. Jaarb, Dodonaea, 

 Ghent, vi, 1894, p. 371). Scott-Elliot (Dumfriesshire), several Muscids and 

 Dolichopodids ('Flora of Dumfriesshire,' p. 123). 



2007. M. palustris Lam. (Sprengel, 'Entd. Geh.,' p. 88; Herm. Muller, 

 'Fertilisation,' p. 416; Knuth, ' Bloemenbiol, Bijdragen.') The flowers of this 



I species agree in their mechanism with those of M. intermedia, except that they 



