Soldanella Alpina. 147 



in the evergreen leathery leaves. These flowers are 

 assiduously visited by humble-bees/ so that the ad- 

 vantages of cross-fertilisation are habitually obtained. 

 Growing as this plant does in an alpine region, all 

 protection of its nectar from creeping insects would 

 be superfluous; for on the spot where it comes into 

 flower there is as yet no animal life, and the wing- 

 less creatures from the neighbourhood are kept at a 

 distance by the snow-water with which the ground is 

 soaked. Amongst the flying insects that might visit it 

 there are, it is true, some of such small dimensions that 

 they could make their way to the nectar by passing along 

 the inner surface of the corolla between the filaments, 

 and this without touching stigma or anther; but for their 

 exclusion five smaU and delicate flaps, which extend 

 over the nectar-pit like a diaphragm, are quite sufficient. 

 The flowering process in Soldanella alpvna occupies 

 only a few days. The ripening of the seeds, on the 

 contrary, takes a comparatively long time. It is how- 

 ever usually completed before all vegetation has come 

 to an end in the alpine regions. It is only such 

 individual plants as are prevented from flowering until 

 August by excessive local accumulations of snow that 

 fail altogether to bring their seeds to maturity. 



Now let us suppose this plant to be subjected to a 



1 In the alpine district of Trins in the Tirol I noticed that 

 Soldanella alpina was visited very assiduously by Bombus terrestrie, 

 Proteus agrorum, lapida/rms, and also by Apis meUijica. 



