THE AMERICAN BOTANIST, 
What THE Bee Does with PoLLEN.-Manv flowers 
that secrete no nectar are visited by bees whoca'rry offthe 
polkn. InCovntrr Life in America Mrs. Annn Botsford 
Comstock tells us that the bee uses the polkn to form the 
bee bread used as the food of young bees. 
Sensitive Pistils.— Many flowers like the kalmia and 
barberry have sensitive stamens which spring up and dust 
visiting insects with pollen, but cases of flowers with sen- 
sitive pistils are less frequent. They occur, nevertheless, 
m several common flowers, among which may be men- 
tioned the catalpa, trumpet-creeper (Bignonia) and 
monkey -flower (Mimulus). In these the stigma is bifid 
and spreads out until an insect comes in contact with one 
of the lobes when it at once closes. By touching such a 
stigma with a stamen from the flower, this closing may 
be observed in many cases. 
Disappeakixg Stamens.— We are so accustomed to 
find at least one stamen fc^r taeh petal of the flower that 
the blossoms of the mints and figworts containing fewer 
stamens seem curiously lacking in these organs. The 
novice, is likely to wonder whether these plants have 
always been that way, and if not, how thev lost their 
missing parts. Probably we shall revtr knou- exactly 
how it haslHxn brought alK)ut.but the wAy of the subject 
seems best explained upon the supposition that having a 
most efiective means ot dusting insects with pollen bv the 
use of two or four stamens the flowers can do without the 
others. It is likely that these unnecessary stamens gradu- 
ally dwindled away and disappeared. ' We can see evi- 
dences of a fifth stamtn in many of the figworts, notably 
in tl-.e heard-tOTigue {Pentstemon) where it forms a 
"r-eanUni organ larger than the fertile stamens. In other 
plants It f.rmsa nectarv. The blossoms of the catalpa 
exliihit an interesting series of stamens in various stages 
of development. In the normal blossom there are but two 
perfect stamens, but the other three are usually present, 
sometimes as mere threads at the base of the flower, at 
