162 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 



Leguminosae and blooms from April 15 to May 12, while A. 

 canadensis blooms later and much longer, July 3 to August 

 26. These flowers illustrate what seems to be a general rule 

 with the bumble-bee flowers of the neighborhood: the early 

 ones visited by bumble-bee females, with accessory visits 

 of Anthophora and Synlialonia., have the nectar more deep 

 seated than the late flowers visited by bumble-bee workers, 

 with accessory visits of Melissodes and Megachile. 



Astragalus canadensis L. — A. caroUnianus L. — The 

 flowers are entirely greenish-yellow, are crowded in racemes 

 and are visited by bees crawling over them. The stigma 

 touches the insect visitor in advance of the anthers. From 

 the calyx tube being 4-5 mm. deep and the vexillum being 

 strongly produced forwards the nectar is only readily ex- 

 hausted by long-tongued bees. On July 7, 9, 16, 23, and Aug, 

 2, I saw the flowers visited by the following insects : — 



Hymenoptera — Apidae: (1) Apis melliflca L. §, one, vainly trying to 

 obtain nectar; (2) Bombus separatus Cr. §,s. i (3) B. pennsylvanicus De 

 G. 9§>s. &c. p. ; (4) B. americanorum F. § , s. «& c. p., freq. ; (5) Melis- 

 sodes biraaculata Lep. (J^, s.; (6) Megachile relativa Cr. ?, s.; (7) Anthi- 

 diura emarginatum Say i^, s. ; Andrenidae: (8) Halictus parallelus Say $, 

 s., one. ; Eumenidae: (9) Odynerus fundatus Cr., s., one. 



Lepidoptera — Ehopalocera: (^10) Nisoniades martialis Scud., s., one. 



At Mt. Carmel, Illinois, Schneck (17) saw the flowers 

 perforated by Xylocopa virginica Dru. 



Astragalus mexicanus A. DC. — This is the northernmost 

 limit of the plant in Illinois, but it is quite common. To the 

 list of visitors given before (14) add the following observed 

 on April 19 and 29 : — 



Apidae: (3) Bombus pennsylvanicus De G. ?> s. & c. p.; (6) Anthophora 

 ursina Cr. (J^^, s. & c. p., freq.; (7) Osmia brevis Cr. 9, s. & c. p. 



On the literature of Astragalus see : — 



(1) Sprengel, Das entdeckte Geheimniss, 362. 1793. A. onobrychis. — (2) 

 Axell, Ona anordningarna for de fanerogama vaxternas befruktning, 17, 73, 

 111. 1869. A. oroboides, alpinus. — (3) Delpino, Ulteriori osservazioni. Pt. 

 II, fasc. 2: 199. 1875. Atti d. soc. Ital. d. sci. nat. in Milano 16:347. 1873. 

 A. alpinus. — (4; Errera et Gevaert, Sur la structure et les modes de 

 fdcondation des fleurs. Bull. Soc. royale bot. de Belgique 17:78. 1878. 

 A. alpinus. — (5) Miiller, Weitere Beobachtungen. II. Verb, naturhist. 

 Ver. preuss. Rheinl. u. Westf. 1879. 252-3. A. glycyphyllos.— (Jo) Miiller, 



