162 ANGIOSPERMAEDICOTYLEDONES 



commonest are markedly protandrous. The anthers of the outer whorl of stamens 

 mature during the first night, those of the inner whorl during the second night, 

 and the stigmas during the third. Self-pollination is therefore excluded. The 

 flowers are closed and devoid of odour during the day. Besides the hermaphrodite 

 blossoms, male and female ones have been observed. The plant is gynomonoecious 

 and gynodioecious, andromonoecious and androdioecious. The female blooms are 

 smaller than the others, but a small-flowered hermaphrodite variety also occurs. 

 The anthers project far out of the flower, and the stigmatic papillae are long, which 

 characters Schulz regards as indications of anemophily. This investigator working 

 at Halle, and in Thuringia, the Tyrol and North Italy was unable to confirm 

 Kerner's observations except in a few points. He found, on the contrary, that the 

 stamens and pistil may mature at any time, and that the interval between the three 

 stages of development is not so regular as Kerner asserts. Schulz also questions 

 the general correctness of Kerner's statement that the petals always roll up in the 

 daytime, thus making the flowers quite inconspicuous ; for on high regions (2,000- 

 2,200 m. above sea-level) this rolling-up only occurs in very sunny spots during the 

 middle of the day. The plants I investigated in Sylt and subsequently in the garden 

 of the Realschule at Kiel, agreed with Kerner's account : in the daytime they looked 

 faded, and were quite odourless; at dusk their petals became turgid, and a powerful 

 scent of hyacinths was exhaled. Unfortunately, I did not see any guests. 



Visitors. Owlet-moths (Noctuidae) have been observed Dianthoecia and 

 Mamestra which, Kerner says, lay their eggs in the flowers, and according to 

 Buchanan White (Justs bot. Jahresber., Leipzig, 1873, p. 377), they stand in much 

 the same relation to Silene as the Yucca-moth to Yucca (cf. Vol. I, pp. 102-3). 



Rossler observed the following Lepidoptera at Wiesbaden. 1. Cidaria hydrata 

 Tr. ; 2. Dianthoecia albimacula Bkh. ; 3. Cucullia chamomillae Schiff. 



Herm. Miiller in the Alps saw 2 butterflies and a moth, also 3 species of 

 humble-bee, of which two obtained nectar by perforating the flowers. Loew (' Bei- 

 trage,' p. 63) observed Bombus hortorum L. 5, skg., by Lake Como, and Frey saw 

 the moth Pterogon proserpina Pall. Schulz noted butterflies and moths, besides 

 humble-bees, of which some obtained nectar by perforation. 



403. S. dichotoma Ehrh. The white flowers are protandrous. Gynodioecism 

 was observed by Warming in Denmark, and by Kirchner in Wurtemberg. 



404. S. Armeria L. MacLeod says that the rose-red flowers are distinctly 

 protandrous, with a corolla-tube 16-18 mm. long, and nectar accessible only to 

 Lepidoptera. 



Besides the hermaphrodite flowers, Breitenbach has observed (Kosmos, Stuttgart, 

 xiv, 1884) female ones on distinct plants in the Botanic Gardens of Marburg and 

 Gottingen. The flowers are protected against creeping animals (ants) by the sticky 

 nature of the upper internodes. 



Visitors. MacLeod observed diurnal hawk-moths Macroglossa and moths 

 Plusia in Belgium. 



405. S. longiflora Ehrh. The white flowers smell like hyacinths at night, 

 and open between eight and nine in the evening. 



Visitors. Kerner says that moths are the pollinating agents. 



