CARYOPHYLLEAE 159 



I, p. 6.) The white or flesh-coloured petals of the protandrous hawk-moth flowers 

 are devoid of nectar-guides. A fragrant odour is exhaled, becoming much stronger 

 in the evening. Nectar is secreted and concealed at the bottom of the calyx-tube 

 which is 18-21 mm. in length, and is prolonged a few mm. by the corona and can 

 only be reached by Lepidoptera possessing a very long proboscis. The five outer 

 stamens first project from the flower, above the entrance to which their anthers 

 dehisce. After shedding their pollen they diverge, leaving the entrance of the flower 

 free for the inner whorl of stamens. "When these have shed their pollen the two 

 styles grow up, spreading out their stigmas at the level previously occupied by 

 the anthers. Self-pollination is therefore excluded. The species is sometimes gyno- 

 dioecious, more rarely gynomonoecious. 



Visitors. These are chiefly hawk-moths (Sphinx and Macroglossa). Hermann 

 Miiller saw Sphinx ligustri Z., skg. ; I myself noticed Macroglossa stellatarum Z. in 

 the Kiel Botanic Garden. MacLeod very frequently saw this species in the Pyrenees; 

 also Sphinx convolvuli Z., of which a single individual visited twenty-nine flowers in 

 two minutes. Kerner observed Noctuidae belonging to the genera Dianthoecia 

 and Mamestra. Owing to the shortness of their proboscis, butterflies cannot secure 

 the nectar : I observed, for example, Vanessa io Z. vainly trying to suck the flower 

 in the North Frisian islands. Nor was the honey-bee able to reach the nectar. 

 I also noticed there po-dvg. hover-flies and Lucilia caesar Z. Buddeberg found 

 a small bee Halictus morio F. $ po-cltg. on the flowers as an unbidden guest. 



In the Netherlands, H. de Vries (Ned. Kruidk. Arch., Nijmegen, 2. ser., 2. deel, 

 1875) observed a humble-bee Bombus terrester Z. 5 probably only po-cltg. 



398. S. ocymoides L. This species bears protandrous Lepidopterid flowers. 

 Hermann Miiller (' Alpenblumen/ pp. 200-1) states that the stamens and carpels 

 develop in the same order as among the Sileneae already described, and that 

 automatic self-pollination is exceptionally possible as a last resort. A divergent 

 feature is that each of the five outer stamens expands at its base into a fleshy 

 red appendage, which probably secretes the nectar. Besides protandrous herma- 

 phrodite flowers, there are also purely female ones, and in rare instances purely 

 male ones as well. The plant, according to Hildebrand ('Die Geschlechtsvert. b. 

 d. Pfl./ p. 11), is gynodioecious, gynomonoecious, androdioecious, andromonoecious, 

 or even trimonoecious (=$>$). 



Visitors. Herm. Miiller observed numerous Lepidoptera (more than 30 

 species) in the Alps; also some humble-bees (3 species) and Bombyliidae (2 species), 

 which reached the honey only with difficulty. A. Schulz ('Beitrage,' II, pp. 24-6) 

 also noted a preponderance of Lepidoptera (35 species) in the South Tyrol, together 

 with a few humble-bees nect. skg., and po-dvg. flies. This observer very frequently 

 found the flowers of which the calyx had been perforated and the nectar stolen by 

 Bombus mastrucatus Gerst., or more rarely by B. terrester Z. 



119. Vaccaria Medicus. 

 Protandrous, homogamous, or feebly protogynous Lepidopterid flowers. Calyx 

 ventricose as a protection against humble-bees acutely pentagonal, almost winged, 

 and devoid of basal bracts; petals with winged claws; no corona. Sometimes 

 gynomonoecious and gynodioecious. 



