1880. ] Botany. 733 
alighting on the hook of the nectaries and perforating them on 
the convex side, securing their prize through the opening thus 
formed. 
It is well known that one or more of our sixty-two North 
American species of Bombus habitually perforate flowers whose 
nectar is inaccessible to them normally; and from the shortness 
of the spurs of certain flowers like Dicentra canadensis and D. 
cucullaria, which, as every lover of our spring flowers must haVe 
noticed repeatedly, are invariably disfigured in this manner in 
some localities, it is to be inferred that some of these bees have 
very short tongues, though I am not aware that the species have 
ever been carefully compared in this respect. The individuals 
that Mr. Meehan found perforating columbines, in all probability 
did not possess tongues sufficiently long to enable them to obtain 
the nectar in the regular way. . 
` While, therefore, Aguilegta vulgaris is visited normally to a 
certain extent by hive Bees, small wild bees and short-tongued 
humble bees, which either in gathering pollen or trying to 
obtain nectar must, necessarily, aid in the cross-fertilization 
of the flowers, it seems perfectly adapted to profit by the visits 
of the long-tongued species of Bombus, and I must therefore 
depart from the conclusions of Mr. Meehan, that “the humble 
bee and the honey bee are evidently not the insects for which the 
Aquilegia had this beautifully contrived nectar cup provided to 
induce cross-fertilization, and what particular insect was designed 
to be the favored one, so that it and no other could turn its 
tongue around these twisted spurs to get at the honey in the end, 
I think no student has discovered,” so far as to believe that the 
evidence in the case warrants the conclusion that certain species 
“the humble bee” are evidently the insects for which the 
Aquilegia had its beautifully contrived nectar cup provided to 
induc® cross-fertilization.— William Trelease. : 
PLANTS or Nova Scotia, CAPE Breton AND NEw FOUNDLAND. 
=-The following list of plants represent the results of herborizing 
in an interesting region : ; 
Thalictrum cornuti L Torbay, N. F. ‘ 
Ranunculus hyperboreus Roth., Open Hall, N. F. In black mud. 
“ repens L., Guysborough, N. S. ; 
$ acris L., Guysborough, N. S. ' 
rracenia purpurea L., Arichat, Cape Breton island. $ ze 
Drosera rotundifolia L., at Arichat, with S. purpurea L., and Calopogon pulchellus 
in moist moss, and at Open Hall, N. F. 
mith, Guysborough, N. S., Torbay, N. F. — 
longifolia Muhl., Torbay, N. F. 
j uliginosa Murr., Torbay, N. F. Tk ! i 
Cerastium viscosum L, Torbay, N. F., Guysborough, N. S. = 
Malva moschata L., Guysborough, N. S. Both the white and the purple-flowered 
forms common on roadsides ee 
is acet 
Spiræa salicifolia L., Open Hall, N. ; 
Poterium canadense L., Cape Broyle, N. F. 
Potentilla norvegica L., Carbonier, N. F. 
