640 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VIII. No. 201. 



flower structure, together with observations 

 upon plants grown in the water gardens of the 

 Missouri Botanical Garden and Tower Grove 

 Park, he finds they are especially adapted to 

 the visits of large bees. The flower is so con- 

 structed as to utilize these visits in efi'ecting 

 cross-pollination. The pistil is held under ten- 

 sion in a manner similar to the bowed stamens 

 in Kalmia by one of the lower staminodia. This 

 staminodium is folded about the pistil in much 

 the same way that the keel of a papilionaceous 

 leguminous flower surrounds the stamen column, 

 though much more closely and tenaciously. One 

 margin of the keel develops two bristles, the 

 posterior of which is in the direct path to the 

 nectary. This bristle proves to be highly sen- 

 sitive, and transmits an impulse to the part of 

 the keel clasping the pistil, allowing the latter 

 to suddenly rise and coil in a spiral motion. 

 Before the flower opens the anther cell dehisces 

 and sheds its pollen on a viscid disc which is 

 situated on a style immediately back of the 

 stigma. The stigmatic surface itself forms a 

 funnel-shaped excavation in the end of the pis- 

 til. When a bumble-bee alights on the broad 

 petaloid staminodium which forms the platform 

 of the flower it thrusts its beak directly for- 

 ward, under the canopy-shaped upper stamino- 

 dium, into the drop of nectar which is clearly 

 visible. By this act the beak strikes the sensi- 

 tive bristle, which in turn releases the pistil. 

 This rises with a sweeping, spirally -coiling mo- 

 tion which brings the stigmatic svirface in con- 

 tact with the base of the bee's beak, scraping 

 into it any polleu that may have been pre- 

 viously deposited there. Then in its further 

 motion the pistil deposits more pollen, from the 

 viscid disc, upon the bee's beak at the same 

 spot previously scraped by the stigma. This is 

 to be carried to another flower. Finally the 

 pistil comes to rest with its stigma snugly buried 

 in a little wall pocket formed by a fold of the 

 inner surface of the upper staminodium, thus 

 excluding any possibility of further deposits of 

 pollen upon it. Immediately this takes place 

 the petaloid staminodia begin to wither and so 

 discourage any further visits of insects. 



A discussion of the flora about Creve Coeur 

 Lake followed. 



The Club met again on Thui-sday, October 



13th, fifteen members present. Mr. J. B. S. 

 Norton discussed the modes of branching found 

 in EuphorbiacejE, and explained the structure 

 of the flower, illustrating his remarks with nu- 

 merous specimens. Miss N. M. Gladfelter spoke 

 on edible mushrooms, and exhibited some forty 

 species collected in and about St. Louis on 

 one afternoon. Professor W. R. Dodson re- 

 ported upon some results of growing soy beans 

 of different colors. By selection it was possible 

 to reach two extreme forms as well as all of the 

 intermediate stages. 



Hekmann von Scheenk, 



Secretary. 



NEW BOOKS. 



Elementary Botany. George Francis Atkin- 

 son. New York, Henry Holt & Co. 1898. 



Pp. xxiii + 444. .$1.25. 

 Text-hook of Algebra. George Egbert Fisher 



and Is.iAC J. SCHWATT. Philadelphia, Fisher 



& Schwatt. 1898. Part I. Pp. xiii + 683. 

 The Ice Age, Past and Coming. C. A. M. Taber. 



Boston. 1898. Pp. 101. 

 The Genesis and Dissolution of the Faculty of 



Speech. Joseph Collins. New York and 



London, The Macmillan Company. 1898. 



Pp. 432. 

 Elements of Sanitary Engineering. Mansfield 



Meeriman. New York, John Wiley & Sons \ 



London, Chapman & Hall, Ltd. 1898. Pp. 



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 U Annee biologique. 2d year, 1896. IVES 



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Pp. XXXV + 808. 

 Naturse Novitates. Berlin, R. Friedlander und 



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Thompson. New York, Charles Scribner's 



Sons. Pp. 359. $2.00. 

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GoEBEL. Jena, Gustav Fischer. 1898. Pp. 



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C. Worcester. New York and London, 



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