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THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol. XLII 



of this group in America. The insect was especially in- 

 teresting to me, because I had just been studying the bees 

 in Baltic Amber, which include various genera and 

 species of still earlier bees related to Bombus. 



Another bee of great interest was a species of Antho- 

 phora, with the mouth-parts exserted and plainly visible. 

 Some of the amber bees show the mouth-parts very well, 

 but it is extremely rare for those in shale to show any- 

 thing of the kind. The genus Anthophora is common in 

 Colorado to-day, but it was not previously known from 

 the American Tertiaries. 



A Problematical Flower 

 Last year we found, among other flowers, one which 

 was so interesting, and so well preserved, that Dr. Arthur 

 Hollick made it the subject of a special article in Torreya, . 

 September, 1907. Dr. Hollick named it Phenanthera 

 petalifera, new genus and species, but was unable to place 



it definitely in any known family. A new specimen, 

 figured herewith, is clearly of the same species, and on 

 the whole confirms Dr. Hollick 's description. The 

 stamens, with long filaments and large anthers, are cer- 

 tainly eight in number. The supposed appendages of 

 the calyx seem to me to be emarginate, and to resemble 

 rather closely the small petals of certain Ribes. Follow- 

 ing this clue, the large, thin "petals" may be interpreted 

 as petaloid calyx-lobes, also as in Kibes. The short 

 pedicels, about the length of the hypanthium, suggest that 



