Flowers and insects. XIII.’ 
CHARLES ROBERTSON. 
DOPpECATHEON MEADIA L.—American cowslip, shooting- 
star. In his arrangement of floral mechanisms Delpino (2) 
recognizes a class of pendulous nodding or horizontal flowers 
upon which the visitors cling (apparrecchi prensili), which he 
divides into the borrage and the verbascum types (tipo bor- 
ragineo, tipo verbascino). The former includes such flowers 
as Dodecatheon, Cyclamen, and Solanum, which the bees clasp 
in such a way as to receive the pollen upon the undersides of 
their bodies, and the latter contains flowers like Verbascum 
and Tradescantia, which are provided with hairs which afford 
a foot-hold. 
Kerner (1) regards the reflexed petals as facilitating access 
to nectar and pollen, and this is true as regards the legitt- 
mate visitors. Intruders are much more effectually excluded 
than would be thecase if the petals were less strongly reflexed, 
as in the flowers of Erythronium.* The approximation 0 
the anthers in a compact cone also gives the flower a signal 
advantage aver such a flower as Ribes gracile,* whose stamens 
being of the ordinary form permit the visits of a number 0 
insects which the flower cannot utilize. The reflexed petals 
also render the nodding flowers much more conspicuous and 
attractive than they would be if the expanded petals faced the 
Loew (3) has figured and thoroughly described Dodecatheom 
integrifolium Michx. (=D. Meadia L.), D. Feffreyt Moore (=D. 
Meadia var. lancifolium Gray), and an unnamed species from 
material growing in the Berlin Garden. To this I shall add 
an account of D. Meadia as observed under natural conditions 
in Illinois., The plant is common in prairies and open woods, 
where it grows in rather large patches. The scapes rise from 
3 to 6™ and bear numerous, handsome flowers, which are 
white or rose color. The corolla has a short tube, which fof 
: 1Contributions to an account of the ecological relations of the entomoph- 
ilous flora and the anthophilous insect fauna of the neighborhood of Carlin- 
ville, Illinois. 
2Bot. Gaz. 17:69. 1892. 
3Tbid., 270. 
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