20 
BULLETIN OF WISCONSIN NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. VOL. 5, NO. 1. 
FAM. MELANTHACE^. 
Tofieldia glutinosa (Mich.) Pers. Glutinous Tofielclia. 
We encounter this species forming patches in damp places on 
the clay-bluffs along Lake Michigan north of Whitefish Bay, and 
blooming from about June 15 to July 18. The inflorescence is a 
raceme of 3 to 4 cm. length at the end of a scape which is 3 to 4 
dm. long, and which is covered nearly for its entire length with 
viscid glands. The white flowers with a diameter of 9 mm. are 
directed somewhat laterally. They are arranged in groups of 
three, and those at the top of the inflorescence are the first to open. 
The perianth-leaves do not spread entirely in the open flower, and 
the six stamens which are 4 mm. long occupy an intermediate 
position between the pistil and the perianth-leaves. The yellow 
anthers open introrsely one by one. They are slightly surpassed 
by the three short branches of the style which by bending out- 
wards to some extent place their stigmatic surfaces in the way of 
insect visitors. These flowers are homogamous. A drop of nectar 
is secreted near the base of the ovary in each of the septal furrows, 
and when the amount increases it gathers between the ovary and 
the broadened base of the opposite filament. After fertilization 
has been accomplished the pedicel undertakes an inward movement 
and presses the ovary against the stem. Along with this move- 
ment a reddish-purple coloration of the upper parts of the ovary, 
branches of the style and tips of the persistent perianth-leaves 
sets in resulting in a color-contrast between the top of the inflor- 
esence and its lower region where the flowers are still or hardly 
in bloom. The flowers are sufficiently visited by insects to insure 
either self or cross-pollination, and spontaneous self-pollination 
from the falling of pollen on the stigma is barely probable since 
the latter is usually not situated directly below an anther. A small- 
sized insect when sucking nectar is liable to bring one side of 
its head or thorax in contact with an anther, and the other side 
with a stigma, and a subsequent visit to another flower may result 
in cross-pollination. The following visitors were observed on 
the flowers : 
A. Hymenoptera 
Apidse: (i) Apis mellif era L. worker, s. ; Andrenidse : (2) Ha- 
lictus zcphyriis Sm. female, s. ; Vespidae : (3) Polistes paUipes 
St. Farg., s. 
