CARYOPHYLLEAE i6i 



Batalin observed cleistogamous flowers on the following species of Silene: — 

 S. vilipensa Kunze, S. hirsuta Lag., S. gallica Z., S. cerastoides Z., S. tridentata Des/., 

 S. clandestina/af^., S. longicaulis Pourr., S. apetala Willd., S. inaperta Z., S. antir- 

 rhina Z. 



401. S. inflata Sm. ( = S. vulgaris Garcke). (Axell, 'Om Anord. for Fanerog. 

 Vast. Befrukt.,' p. 46 ; Herm. MflUer, ' Fertilisation,' p. 1 29, ' Alpenblumen/ pp. 1 98-9 ; 

 Kemer, 'Nat. Hist. PI.,' Eng. Ed. i, II; Kirchner, 'Flora v. Stuttgart,' p. 248; 

 A. Schulz, ' Beitrage,' I, pp. 9-10; MacLeod, Bot. Jaarb. Dodonaea, Ghent, iii, 1891, 

 PP- 374-5. vi, 1894, p. 154; Knuth, 'Bl. u. Insekt. a. d. nordfr. Ins.,' pp. 3S-9, 151, 

 ' Weit. Beob. ii. Bl. u. Insekt. a. d. nordfr. Ins.,' p. 231 ; Warnstorf, Verh. bot. Ver., 

 Berhn, xxxviii, 1896.) — The species bears protandrous-trioecious Lepidopterid and 

 humble-bee (?) flowers. The white bilobed petals possess no nectar-guides. The 

 nectar is concealed at a depth of 10-12 mm., but the enhance to the flower is 

 not very narrow, admitting even the proboscis of a humble-bee. The female flowers 

 are smaller than the male and hermaphrodite ones, and the first two kinds each 

 possess vestigial reproductive organs of the opposite sex. The hermaphrodite flowers 

 are protandrous, and capable of self-pollination. The inflated calyx is not always 

 an effective protection against the bites of nectar-stealing humble-bees, for Bombus 

 terrester and B, mastrucatus sometimes — though not always, as MacLeod observed 

 in the Pyrenees — succeed in stealing the nectar after perforating the calyx. 



According to Schulz, the sexes in this species are distributed in a five-fold 

 manner ; there being hermaphrodite, male, female, gynomonoecious and andro- 

 monoecious stocks. The occurrence of these forms is very variable ; in some places 

 male plants seem to be wanting altogether, or at least to be rarer than female ones. 



Visitors. — These are partly Lepidoptera (mostly moths), partly humble-bees, 

 skg. in both cases. In the North Frisian Islands I saw 2 Lepidoptera— Plusia gamma 

 Z. and Epinephele janira L. — and a humble-bee — Bombus lapidarius L. Kerner 

 observed Noctnidae — Dianthoecia and Mamestra — in the Tyrol. Loew (' Beitrage,' 

 p. 28) noticed Bombus agrorum F. 5, skg., in Lower Silesia. Rossler — at Wies- 

 baden — saw the moth Dianthoecia nana Rott., skg. Herm. Miiller observed Lepi- 

 doptera — 2 moths and 3 butterflies — and 7 species of humble-bee in the Alps. 

 MacLeod — in the Pyrenees — noticed 3 species of humble-bee, a wasp, a Bombylius 

 (skg. while resting on the flower!), and a po-dvg. Muscid, but no Lepidoptera. 

 Lindman saw a humble-bee, a Lepidopterid, and a fly by the Hardanger Fjord, 

 and Warnstorf — in Brandenburg — observed numerous ants as unbidden guests. 



In Dumfriesshire an Empid, and numerous Muscids and hover-flies have been 

 recorded (Scott-Elliot, 'Flora of Dumfriesshire,' p. 23). 



402. S. nutans L. (Sprengel, 'Entd. Geh.,' p. 252; Ricca, Atti Soc. ital. sc. 

 nat, Milano, xiv, 1871; Herm. Miiller, 'Fertilisation,' p. 129, 'Alpenblumen,' 

 pp. 197-8; Kerner, 'Nat. Hist. PI.,' Eng. Ed. i, II; Schulz, 'Beitrage,' I, pp. 6-7; 

 Kirchner, 'Flora v. Stuttgart,' p. 248; Knuth, 'Bl. u. Insekt. a. d. nordfr. Ins.,' 

 pp. 40-1.) — The protandrous moth flowers — which smell like hyacinths at night — 

 are of a dirty white colour, devoid of nectar-guides, and conceal their nectar at 

 a depth of 13-14 mm. Kerner says that in the Tyrol they mature their stamens 

 and pistil on three consecutive nights. The hermaphrodite flowers — which are the 



