374 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. [Vor. XXXIV. 
TABLE I. — AVERAGES OF FERTILIZATION BY INSECTS 
FOR 30 CAPSULES. 
VERAGE P CEK NUMBER OF 
CAPSULES. NUMBER OF FERTILIZED. | UNFERTILIZED. | SR E CAPSULES 
FERTILIZED. 
COUNTED. 
la 126 74 52 58.73 IO 
Ib 129 57 2 44.96 5 
Ic II4 2 82 28.07 5 
IIa 123 44 79 3577 5 
II 4 113 40 73 35.39 5 
Totals Naba? 43 68 P 30 
V. Tue DESTRUCTION OF THE SEEDS. 
I observed two types of seed destroyers, ecologically speak- 
ing : (1) those which are locally destructive, and (2) those 
which are with the flag in all the situations in which it grows. 
The influence of situation will be discussed under a subsequent 
heading, but here may be mentioned the insects locally destruc- 
tive to the developing seeds. These are grasshoppers, Mames- 
tra larvee, and ovipositing damsel flies of the genus Lestes. 
The grasshoppers are very destructive in meadow clumps 
and in the drier, more grassy situations, sometimes eating all 
the capsules over considerable areas, while generally disdaining 
to eat the leaves at all. 
Of the three moth larvæ already mentioned as feeding on 
the flowers, only Mamestra remains to attack the developing 
ovary; the others return to their aforetime diet of leaves. But 
Mamestra, having once bitten into a juicy capsule, will eat 
nothing else thereafter, so long as capsules are obtainable. In 
my rearing cages a single larva would eat out all the seeds from 
a well-grown capsule in two days. Mamestra hardly comes into 
competition with the grasshoppers, since it avoids the drier 
situations where these are numerous enough to be destructive. 
The injury from Lestes was: still more local and was of a 
sort apparently not hitherto recorded. It was confined to flags 
