1870. } Botany. 581 
some of which are unable to escape from the spathes and die 
there. A little later in the season a small bug (Hemipter) may 
be found in small numbers on the spadices, and they are ysually 
well dusted with pollen. Occasionally a slug or the slimy trail of 
one is found within a spathe, and usually they pass over the spa- 
dix. A couple of weeks after finding the first bee the spathes 
will be found swarming with the minute black flies that were 
sought in vain earlier in the season, and their number is attested 
not only by the hundreds of them which can be seen, but also by 
the many small but very fat spiders whose webs bar the entrance 
to three-fourths of the spathes. During the present spring a few 
specimens of a small scavenger-beetle (7ps fasciatus) have been 
captured within the spathes of this plant. What they were after 
I can scarcely say, but they may have been visiting spathe after 
spathe in search of one with a decaying spadix, for the prolonged 
cold and wet weather caused many to decay, or they may have 
been in search of flower-food. 
Considering these facts, it appears that with us hive-bees are 
not deterred by the odor of the flowers from visiting them and 
collecting their pollen, and that their visits are so frequent as to 
render them the chief agents in securing the cross-fertilization of 
the flowers, at least very early in the season. Later a few bugs 
and beetles may be of some use in transferring pollen, as-also in 
a slight degree the spiders which take up their abode within or at 
the entrance of the spathes. Slugs and snails enter as agents for 
the transfer of pollen in a few cases, as might be expected from 
what Delpino has shown with regard to their habits in visiting 
plants related to this. Finally, other'and more attractive flowers 
opening, the bees appear to cease visiting those of this species, 
and countless small flies take their place, compensating for their 
small size by their great numbers.— William Trelease, À 
-BoranicaL News.—To the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical 
Club, Mr. N. L. Britton -contributes notes on the relative age and 
dimensions of a number of different trees. Dr. G. Engelmann 
in portions of Nevada, Utah, California, Colorado, New Mexico 
and Arizona, during the years 1871-75,” by Dr. J. T. Rothrock, 
who has been aided by Messrs. Engelmann, Porter, Watson, 
Bebb, Vasey, Boott, Eaton, James and Tuckerman. Fift 
New Mexican district, and on Economic Botany. Prof. 
report on the Ferns of the South-west relates to all the ferns 
hitherto discovered in the regions of the United States lying 
