FLOWERS AND INSECTS— LABIATA. 
CHARLES ROBERTSON. 
Teucrium Canadense L.—The plant is rather common in 
low grounds. The stems rise from 5 to 10 dm. and bear 
rather conspicuous racemes of flowers which are pale purplish 
marked with darker purple. 
The fertilization of the perfect flower is well described by 
Foerste, in Am. Nat. XX, 66. It is proterandrous, as in 
other species of the genus. Foerste thinks that spontaneous 
self-fertilization occurs, and states that the visits of the bees 
seem to be less frequent than with most cross-fertilized 
Labiate. 
The flowers project nearly horizontally. The tube is cleft 
on the upper side, so that even the lateral divisions of the 
upper lip form part of the lower lip. The stamens and style, 
therefore, are not protected as in the typical Labiates, but 
rise nearly upright and bend forwards. If the flowers were 
arranged in a nearly flat-topped inflorescence, as in Pycnan- 
themum, we would, no doubt, find them visited for honey and 
pollen by quite a miscellaneous set of insects. The form of 
the inflorescence, however, serves to offset some of the disad- 
vantages in the structure of the flowers, for the stamens are 
protected by the flowers above them; so that it is not easy for 
insects to land directly upon them, and the lateral position of 
the flowers makes it inconvenient for the less specialized 
flower-insects to land upon them. This plant is gynodie- 
cious, the female form being much more common in my 
neighborhood. 
I have found the flowers in bloom from June 24 to Aug. 13. 
On five days, July 6-10, I observed the following visitors, all 
sucking honey :— 
Apide: (1) Apis melifica L. 8, ab.; (2) Bombus virginicus Oliv. 8; (3) 
Melissodes bimaculata Lep. j'9; (4) Magachile brevis Say 9. 
