IN FERTILIZING PLANTS. 257 
awns are wanting. Probably most flowers which droop — 
or hang down are fertilized by insects. For otherwise, 
how can the pollen find the tip of a stigma, when the - 
style is suspended ? 
The mode of fertilization in the American Laurel ( Kal- 
mia) has already been well described in the NATURALIST, 
but I may be excused for adding my testimony concern- 
ing this beautiful and interesting plant. 
When the anthers are liberated from the pockets in the 
corolla, the stamens suddenly straighten and throw jets 
of pollen often for a foot or more, “acting,” as Professor 
Gray used to say, “like a boy’s pea-shooter.” 
Many times when the dew was on, I have seen the 
common honey-bee and other Hymenoptera about these 
flowers. When the bee alights on a flower, the style 
Comes up between the legs where they join the body, or 
_ Sometimes farther back against the abdomen. 
Tn this position they turn around, as though they were 
balanced on a pivot, generally inserting the tongue out- 
side of the filament, and, while doing this, pull the sta- 
mens with their legs towards the centre of the flower, re- 
leasing them and frequently receiving the shots of pollen 
on their own body. A single visit from an insect is suf- 
ficient to release all the anthers. By noon it was a diffi- | 
cult matter to find a flower which had not been visited in 
this way. Insects seem to be absolutely necessary for 
the perfect fertilization of Kalmia angustifolia and K. 
latifolia, for I tied small nets over some flower-clusters 
(corymbs) , and found that when the bees were kept away, 
the flowers withered and fell off, most of the anthers still 
Temaining in the pockets, and the filaments so decayed 
that their elasticity was entirely gone. The very few an- 
AMERICAN NAT., VOL. I. 
