SALVIA COCCINEA, AN ORNITHOPHILOUS PLANT. 
RICHARD C. McGREGOR. 
SoME time ago my attention was called to an Anna’s Hum- 
ming Bird (Calypte anna) visiting the flowers of a small garden 
shrub. Feathers at the base of the upper mandible were 
thickly covered with a yellow substance, undoubtedly pollen ; 
something which I had not previously noticed in the hummers. 
The question was at once suggested, Does this plant depend 
upon birds for cross fertilization ? 
An examination of blossoms showed them to have the follow- 
ing described structure. The green striated calyx and scarlet 
labiate corolla are not striking. The pistil is bifurcate, the 
points protruding from the upper corolla lobe. The upper 
point is greatly recurved, the other slightly curved forward and 
downward. The stamens, two in number, are of an odd form, 
well known, however, to those familiar with this genus. 
Their filaments are adherent to the corolla to within a short 
distance of its mouth, where they become free and run obliquely 
upward and forward, terminating on either side, close beneath 
the base of the upper lip. The connective is prolonged in 
each stamen into a slender longitudinally placed rod. Each 
connective is attached at its middle by a hinge joint to the end 
of its filament, thus forming an oblique lever with equal arms. 
The connectives are united for half their length. The anther- 
bearing ends are free, forming a Y-shaped affair with the arms 
close together (Fig. 3). 
Experiments with a hummer skin and a salvia blossom demon- 
strate the method of fertilization. The posterior end of the 
lever is raised by the bird’s bill, lowering the divided, anther- 
bearing end, one branch of which brushes each side of the 
bird’s head, leaving its pollen among the feathers (Fig. 2). 
The sharp-pointed lower fork of the pistil in turn removes 
some of the pollen as the bird withdraws its bill. This may 
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