No. 401.] THE FRUITING OF THE BLUE FLAG. 365 
attempt at sucking, but scraped the trough of the sepal with 
its legs, gathering pollen. 
Halictus disparilis Cr. — This minute bee is a common, 
though not a conspicuous nor an important visitor. It enters 
the flower by crawling beneath the tip of the style back down- 
ward, traverses the stigma, and walks back and forth, the 
length of the anther clinging to its underside, dislodging with 
its claws large quantities of pollen (Fig. 2). A strikingly 
large load of pollen is thus collected upon the hairs of its ven- 
tral surface. So it spends a long time under a single anther 
and visits but few in gathering its load. While it is highly 
probable that the bee everts and pollinates the stigma on 
Fic. 2. — A minute bee (Halictus disparilis Cr ;) collecti llen f the Iris anther; a., anther. 
JS filament ; s, style. 'The arrow indi I f i t i he fl 
entering, it is certainly very wasteful of pollen. A more equi- 
table arrangement is seen in its relations with Ludwigia poly- 
carpa, which it visits in pools near by, and whose small flowers 
will furnish a load of pollen only for the traversing of a multi- 
tude of stigmas. 
Trichius piger Fabr.— This ubiquitous flower beetle, ob- 
served by Robertson at Carlinville in the flowers of Z. verst- 
color, was rather common here. The channeled sepal seemed 
a favorite place for an afternoon nap. I found several there 
undoubtedly asleep — one so soundly that, after carrying it 
about in the flower in my hand for half an hour, I still had a 
chance to wake it. After repeatedly tickling two of its feet 
that were hanging over the edge of the sepal it at length 
stirred, then stretched itself like a lazy boy awaking; in a 
little while it was lively enough. 
I saw one beetle in the passageway eating fallen pollen. 
The species is not ill-adapted by its size for visiting these 
flowers, and should it pass directly from flower to flower, it 
