
226 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. [Vor. XXXVI. 
buds, the young leaves, and the twigs are of this color, while the 
bark yields a purple dye. The flowers appear in early spring 
before the leaves and were formerly anemophilous. A. spicatum 
blooms later, and the compound racemes of greenish-yellow 
flowers are large and erect. Miiller states that dull-yellow 
flowers are avoided by beetles, but I have observed many 
beetles, as well as bees, upon the inflorescence of this species. 
Closely allied to the maple, but of more recent origin, is the 
genus /Esculus. The flowers seem to have possessed special 
capabilities that led to their adaptation to bumblebees. Among 
ornamental trees few present a more stately and splendid appear- 
ance when in blossom than the common horse-chestnut, sculus 
hippocastanum. It has large white flowers in crowded panicles, 
with the petals marked with yellow, which in a few days changes 
to orange and then to crimson. I have observed the honeybee, 
four species of Bombus, and one Andrena as visitors. Of the 
four other species of this genus three have yellow petals, and 
one, ZEsculus pavia, bright-red flowers an inch in length. 
Impatiens biflora, of the Balsaminacee, is orange yellow, 
spotted with reddish brown. One of the petals forms a spurred 
sac. August IO I examined a large number of flowers ; none of 
the spurs were perforated, and they were visited legitimately 
by Bombus vagans, which made from seven to twelve visits per 
minute. August 23 and.27 I found hundreds of the flowers 
perforated, and both honeybees and bumblebees stealing the 
nectar. If the Impatiens, fitly called *touch-me-not," could 
speak, what a protest it would utter! Various Diptera are 
attracted to the outside of the sac by the bright colors. 
The colors of the Vitacez, or vine family, are green, closely 
resembling the foliage, and depend entirely upon their strong 
fragrance to attract insects. The inflorescence is in dense pani- 
cles. The calyx is minute, with the limb nearly obsolete. The 
green valvate petals form a hood over the stamens and never 
expand, but fallaway by separating at the base and coiling spi- 
rally upward. The odor, which resembles that of mignonette, 
can be petes at a long distance. “In a journey up the 
anube,” says Kerner, “through the part of the valley called 
the Wastan, wih i neta slopes, fund the ai of the 

