30 
BULLETIN OF WISCONSIN NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. VOL. 5, NO. 1. 
ation in the two species, and that £. albidum may produce a stigma 
of the type credited to £ Americanum, and vice versa. The inner 
anthers surpass the stigma to a sHght extent only. 
According to Robertson cross-polHnation may take place at 
any time, but he considers spontaneous self-pollination of com- 
mon occurrence in absence of insects. The closing of the flowers 
at night anxi in rainy weather would seem to me to favor spon- 
taneous self-pollination as thereby the anthers of the inner row 
are pressed against the stigma. The same mode of pollination 
may also result from the falling of pollen in a flower in which 
the stigma is situated directly below an anther. As Robertson 
points out the nodding position of the flowers favors the visits of 
bees, and nearly excludes other insects, and sixteen of the twxnty- 
two visitors observed by him were bees. In our region the flowers 
are not so extensively visited, and I have noted the following 
bees only: 
Hymenoptera 
Apid^e: (i) Ceratina dupla Say, male and female, s. ; (2) 
Osmia piimUa Cr. male, s. ; Andrenidge : (3) Andrena vicina Sm. 
female, s. and c. p. ; (4) Augoclilora confnsa Rob., female, s. 
Erythronium Americanum Ker. Yellow Adder's Tongue. 
The first flowers appear several days behind those of the fore- 
going species, and the blooming time extends from about April 
25 to I\Iay 19. When open the nodding flower is conspicuously 
yellow and is situated about 16 cm. above the ground. The bud 
has a reddish-brown color, due to such a coloration of the outer 
surface of the outer perianth-leaves. The inner surface of the 
latter and the leaves of the inner row in their entirety are yellow 
except towards the base where they become brownish w^ith nu- 
merous minute reddish-brown spots. In this species too, as in 
the preceding one the nectaries are situated at the base of the 
inner perianth-leaves, and a furrow guides the insect's tongue 
down to each of them. Dehiscence begins in the anthers of the 
outer rovv-. tlie stamens of which are shorter than those of the 
inner row. The latter are 25 mm. long or about 2 mm. longer 
than the pistil. While considering the preceding species it was 
stated that the stigma in E. Americanum usually does not spread 
out in branches as in B. albidum. It is therefore not as liable to 
catch falling pollen in the open flower or to meet the anthers in the 
