580 General Notes. [September, 
GENERAL NOTES. 
BOTANY. 
On THE FERTILIZATION OF SYMPLOCARPUS FŒTIDUS.— Belong- 
ing to the Aroidz, and possessing df Once an odor unpleasant to 
an, and a spathe of a brownish or reddish-purple color, the 
“skunk cabbage” would probably be taken at first sight asa 
good example of what Miiller calls a loathsome flower—a flower 
which by its color and odor repels all insects save carrion-loving 
flies and beetles, and whose, fertilization, if dependent upon insects 
at all, must depend upon those of this kind. From the partly 
closed spathe it might be further inferred that this is a good 
example of a plant in process of transition from the state of a 
completely open loathsome flower, like Calla palustris, to that of 
one in which the spathe has been so modified by natural selection 
as to be converted into what Müller would call a kettle trap, as 
another spadix. In the course of a week or two, for the rapidity 
of development depends in large part on the warmth of the sea- 
son, the aspect of our spadix will have entirely changed, for the 
stigmas of the upper flowers will be withered and the stamens of 
these same flowers will now protrude from their envelopes and 
shed their pollen. Meantime the stigmas of the lower flowers 
have matured, and some can evidently be fertilized by the mere 
falling of pollen from the upper flowers without any extraneous 
aid, for pollen is shed in such quantities that it covers the bottom 
of the spathe. 
On the first warm and sunny day we repair to a sheltered 
lace where we find our plant, and proceed to look for 
the little flies that wè expect to find in the spathes, whither they 
should be attracted by the color and odor, and by the shelter 
offered; but no flies appear. While we are looking a hive-bee 
alights on a spathe and enters it. Approaching, we see her busily 
engaged in collecting pollen, meantime creeping back and forth 
over the surface of the spadix, which, as well as her body, 'S 
~ thoroughly covered with the yellow dust. Other observations 
_ show that each spathe is daily visited by scores of hive-bees, — 
