2G4 



the agency of bees, whereby a cross between two closely-allied 



size, quality, and profusion of the fruit are any criteria. In the 

 city specimens, fertilization has undoubtedly been accomplished 

 through wind-agency. It is extremely doubtful that bees could 



with them in a compactly built city; their ore<ence being rarely 

 ever observed except where conveniences for nest-building and 

 abundance of food are met with. 



Bees were also noticed by the writer to visit the female flowers 

 of C. ovifera, after having previously collected pollen from the 

 male flowers of the same vine. From this and the preceding fact, 

 it would seem that the pollen of a very near ally has sometimes 

 a prepotent influence over the plant's own pollen. 



In Gray's Manual it is affirmed that C. ovifera is probably the 

 parent of C. pepo. That there is a close relationship subsisting 

 between them amounts to a settled conviction in my mind. The 

 perfect freedom with which C. ovifera receives the pollen of J?. 

 pepo, in preference to its own. is what I should expect, if the latter 

 has been evolved from the former, which I presume to be the case. 



Supported by a trellis in front of my door, there is growing a 

 beautiful and thrifty vine of Wistaria Sinensis. When the season 

 is favorable, it is an early bloomer, throwing out its lovely purple, 

 pendent racemes, days in advance of its long, graceful compound 

 leaves. Its flowers usually appear with the various species of 

 Bombi, Xylocopa and Apis, and are sources of attraction to them 

 when other and richer sweets are absent. During the la.»t spring 

 my attention was attracted to these flowers, by the incessant hum 



From morning until night, as long as the flowers remained, 

 these busy creatures were engaged. There were B. pe'ns>/lnntica, 

 B. rirginicus Fab. (queens.) ; Xylocnpa riryiniot (female) and Apis 

 rn>'lUjh-<i (worker). After watching them on many occasions for 



each individual flower of many clusters. The result of my labor 

 from the sizes of the apertures, they were evidently the work ot the 



