1895.] Flowers and Insects. 105 
about 3™” is united with a tube formed by the monadelphous 
filaments. After separating from the stamen tube it is bent 
upon itself, and its lobes are strongly reflexed. At the flex- 
ure it is strongly thickened and marked with dark reddish 
purple. This portion of the corolla forms a foot-hold for the 
bees to cling to while sucking. The tube formed by the 
united filaments is about 5"™ long. The anthers are very 
rigid and are so closely approximated that they form a cone 
from 8 to 10o™ long. Exteriorly the stamen-tube is yellow, 
but the base of each anther is swollen and marked with dark 
purple. This part also serves as a foot-hold and as a path- 
finder. The stamen-tube with its cone of rigid anthers serves 
to conceal the nectar and to render it quite deep seated, for 
to reach the sweets the bees must force their proboscides be- 
tween the anther tips. 
The flowers are homogamous. Cross-pollination is secured 
by the stigma being 2 or 3" in advance of the anthers and 
having its surface directed away from them. According to 
Loew (3) spontaneous self-pollination may occur when the 
corolla falls. 
During the blooming season, April 24 to May 24, the plant 
is in competition more or less severe with the following flow- 
ers, which are also adapted to bumblebees, no mention being 
made of those whose seasons overlap for only a short time 
with the first or last part of the season of Dodecatheon: 
Delphinium tricorne, Geranium maculatum, Aesculus glabra, As- 
tragalus Mexicanus, Baptisia leucophaea, Pyrus coronaria, Rubus vil- 
losus, R. Canadensis, Triosteum perfoliatum, Hydrophyllum Virgini- 
cum, Mertensia Virginica, Pentstemon pubescens, Monarda Bra 
lana, Orchis spectabilis, Uvularia grandiflora and the introduced Tri- 
folium pratense, Robinia Pseudacacia and Nepeta Glechoma. 
The phaenological position of Dodecatheon exposes its flow- 
ers to bumblebee females, the workers only beginning to ap- 
pear as the blooming time expires. It coincides pretty nearly 
with the flight of Anthophora ursina, and later overlaps with 
the early part of the flight of A. abrupta. Synhalonia speciosa 
and S. belfragei and Osmia bucephala fly throughout the per- 
lod. These are the only long-tongued bees which could be 
expected to visit the flowers in my neighborhood. May 2, 5 
and 8 I saw the flowers visited by the following: 
Hymenoptera—Apida: 1) Bombus americanorum F. 9, s., ab.; (2) 
Anthophora ursina Cr. 9, s. and c. p.; (3) Synhalonia speciosa Cr. 4, s., 
Andrenide : (4) Augochlora pura Say 9, c. p., one. 
Lepidoptera—Rhopalocera : (5) Colias philodice Gdt., s. 
Vol. XX.—No. 3. 
