1889. J BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 123 



In Illinois in August, and in Florida in February, I found 

 the flowers visited by the same species of insects, Halictus 

 pectoralis Sm. 9 (Andrenidas), and Helofhilus divisus Loew 

 (Syrphidae). In Florida I also found it visited by a fly, No- 

 lifhila sp. (Ephydridae), and a beetle, Donatio, -piscatrix 

 Lac. (Chrysomelidae). The beetles were abundant on the 

 older flowers, where they were pairing, the females gnawing 

 the petals and anthers. I tried to catch the visitors by hold- 

 ing my net over the flowers and shaking the stalks, which 

 only made the bees lie more closely, and for awhile I thought 

 visitors were very scarce. Finally, I picked many flowers, 

 and, bending back the sepals, found an Halictus under the 

 petals of most of them, especially the new flowers. All of 

 the bees taken on new flowers were well dusted with pollen 

 from older flowers. 



At Madison, Wisconsin, Prof. Trelease (MS. notes) also 

 found it visited by Halictus pectoralis and Donacia piscatrix. 



Sprengel (702) found N. luteum visited by beetles of the 

 genus Meligethes. MiilleT also found it visited by Melige- 

 thes, and by Onesia floralis (Muscidae) and Donacia dentata. 



Delpino (178) regards N. luteum as adapted to beetles, 

 but I find no evidence of siifth adaptation in N. advena ; the 

 beetles which occur I regard as worse than useless. How- 

 ever, beetles of the genus Donacia are very fond of the flow- 

 ers of Nuphar, since they were observed on them by Miiller 

 in Germany, by Trelease in Wisconsin, and by me in Florida. 



Figures of N. luteum in Hooker's edition of Le Maout 

 and Decaisne's^Botany, 208, and in Sprengel, PI. XXIII. 

 indicate fairly well the male stage of JJ. advena. I see noth- 

 ing to lead insects to touch the stigma when the flower is so 

 widely expanded. Indeed, Sprengel says : fci Bei der Nym- 

 phaea hingegen ist es ein blotzer Zufall, das die Blumenka- 

 fer den Antherenstaub auf das Stigma schleppen." and he 

 regards this as an explanation of the large size of the stigma. 

 Pollination seems so uncertain in such a flower as to incline 

 one to doubt whether it is intended to occur when the flowei 

 is so widely expanded. 



Nymfk&a iuberosa Paine.— In Southern Illinois this plant 

 blooms from May until October. The flowers open in the 

 morning sun and close in the afternoon. 



On the first day the flowers are not widely expanded, 

 looking like buds at a distance, and the first stage is likeh 



to be overlooked. The petals stand close together, leaving but 



