49 THE ORCHIDS OF NEW ENGLAND. 
ing extracts—it must be noted that flowers in general are re- 
ferred to. “A. W. Bennett had made a series of observations. 
Among Lepidoptera (butterflies, moths, etc.), 70 visits were made 
to red or pink flowers, 5 to blue, 15 to yellow, 5 to white. Dip- 
tera (two-winged insects), 9 to red or pink, 8 to yellow, 20 to 
white. Hymenoptera (bees, wasps, etc.), 303 to red and pink, 126 
to blue, 11 to yellow, 17 to white. Mr. R. N. Christy records in 
detail the movements of 76 insects, chiefly bees, and thinks bees 
decidedly confine their successive visits to the same species. 
Butterflies generally wander aimlessly. He thinks insects are 
not guided by color alone, and suggests that sense of smell may 
be brought into play. Bees have poor sight for long distances; 
of 55 bumble-bees watched, 26 visited blue flowers: of these, 12 
were methodic, g irregularly so,and 5 not at all. 13 visited 
white flowers; 5 were methodic. 11 visited yellow flowers ; 5 
were methodic. 28 went to red flowers; 7 methodic, 9 nearly 
SO.” | | 
If we can imagine the months as quarrelling over their floral 
offspring, we may be sure that June bitterly disputes the claim 
of May to Calypso borealis, This beautiful little inhabitant of 
cold bogs and cedar swamps is the only known Orchid that 
reaches 68° north latitude, and while very abundant in Oregon 
and the North-west, is so rare in New England that in New 
Hampshire, as Prof. Flint writes me, ‘“ one may be thoroughly 
acquainted with our flora and yet never have seen it.” Fortu- 
nately, the summer tourist arrives in the White Mountains too 
late to find and exterminate the plant, and one can hardly 
blame those who do know its stations for refusing to reveal 
them. At Bangor, Maine, it sometimes bloomsas early as May 
3d, and is always in advance of the Showy Orchis. At Middle- 
bury, its most southerly known station in Vermont, May 2oth is 
regarded as exceptionally early ; and finding it on the same date 
near Charlotte, in the late spring of 1883, I attributed its 
appearance to caprice, as it was several days ahead of the apple- 
