1884.] Botany. 929 
and diverge considerably, while the outer pair stand erect and 
close together near the upper lip (Fig. 3). During this time the 
stigma lobes are closed and the style has grown to the length of 
the longest stamens and assumed a position almost erect, inclined 
rather to the back of the flower (Fig. 4). The flowers are there- 
fore proterandrous, but not purely so. In the bud all. the sta- 
mens and the style curve forwards under the lower lip. 
The distinguishing feature between this and the ordinary 
Labiate consists in the crossing of the filaments, by means of 
which the longer inner stamens take the appearance of being the 
outer stamens, and in the curvature of the style. The style of 
the Labiate usually bends forwards at maturity, so as to meet 
the body of the visiting insects. In this species it seems to bend 
backwards, often much more than represented in Fig. 4. In truth, 
however, this bending occurs before maturity, and either remains 
so at the time the stigma matures, or the curvature forwards is 
rather slight, leaving it behind a line vertical to the individual 
flowers, 
The visiting insect begins at the lower part of the interrupted 
spikes, receiving pollen on its sides from the longer stamens, and 
under its body as it crawls over the smaller ones to the next 
flower, at the same time leaving pollen on the stigma lobes. The 
flower has accommodated itself to the crawling habit of its 
Visitor. 
To explain more fully, the flowers of most Labiate are so 
arranged as to necessitate the entrance of the insect from one 
particular position, compelling them generally to leave the plant 
each time and thus fly to the individual blossoms it chooses to 
visit. Hence the curvature of the style forwards is adapted to 
touch the insect in one particular spot each time. In the case of 
Lophanthus the flowers generally are blossoming throughout the 
whole length of the spike at the same time, and from the short- 
ness of the tube and lips of the flowers the bees readily crawl 
rom one flower to the next in a rather indefinite fashion. The 
backward curvature is here the best adapted to the circumstances 
since it does not offer any unnecessary resistance to the body of 
the insect. Still the arrangement of the flower must be consid- 
ered as of a low degree of specialization —Aug. F. Foerste, Gran- 
ville, Ohio, 
THe Injurtousness oF Porcupine Grass.—Our inquiry as to 
whether porcupine grass has ever been known to injure domestic 
animals in this country is answered as follows by Dr. M. Stalker, 
€ State veterinarian of Iowa: 
You ask whether the fruits of porcupine grass (Stipa spartea) 
_ fe ever a source of inconvenience or injury to living animals ? 
“ls may be very emphatically answered in the affirmative. In 
Many of the north-western counties of Iowa this grass grows in 
