a7e BOTANICAL GAZETTE 
‘A bee alights on the platform formed by one or more of the 
staminodia, thursts its beak forward to secure the drop of nectar, 5 
doing so strikes the sensitive tentacle. The pistil suddenly coils and 
the bee. First the stigma is brought in contact, and scrapes off an 
that may have been previously deposited on the bee at that point. 
the style continues coiling, it brings the viscid disk in contact with th 
point of the bee’s body, depositing more pollen, which will be scraj 
another flower visited. In Maranta and Calathea, the visitor is 
bee of the size of the hive-bee, and the pollen would be deposited on th 
inal surface of its body. The visitors to the Thalia flower are of 
bumble-bee type, and the individual receives the pollen deposit at 
and on one side of its beak. Previous to the coiling of the style, the 
is covered by one or more of the lower staminodia; at the end of 
tion, in each case, it is again covered securely, so that it has but one ¢ 
to become pollinated. After pollination, the flower rapidly withers. 
TRELEASE. 
