POLLINATION" OF THE MANGO. 7 
bodies, and although a few grains were nearly always present no con- 
siderable quantities were ever seen. 
While four beetles were taken on mango flowers, one of them with 
considerable regularity, it is doubtful whether any of the Coleoptera 
plays an important part in pollination. The common species was 
Euphoria sepulcralis Fab., a grayish black, clumsy insect with a broad 
body about 1 centimeter long. Chauliognathus marginatus Fab., a 
slender, much smaller, and more active insect, was seen hi one locality 
on several different occasions. Paclmaeus opalus Oliv., a pale-green 
species slightly under 1 centimeter in length, was taken only once, as 
was also Chrysohothris chrysoela 111., a small black species with six 
shining red spots on the wing cases. It is doubtful whether either of 
these has a bearing on pollination. 
In spite of the visits of the above-mentioned insects, a large pro- 
portion of the stigmas are unpollinated, and it seems probable that 
very little pollen is transferred from one flower to another, most of the 
stigmas probably receiving pollen from the anther of the same flower. 
Examinations were made of numerous flowers to determine the num- 
ber of pollen grains which had lodged on the stigma. For this purpose 
those flowers were chosen in which all, or practically all, of the pollen 
had been shed from the anther, but in which the stigma had not yet 
commenced to turn brown. Such flowers had every opportunity 
to be pollinated and where they were found to be unpollinated at that 
time there was very little chance of their being pollinated at all, since 
the stigma would have soon been past the receptive stage. An exam- 
ination of 429 such flowers gave the following results: 
Number. 
Stigmas unpollinated 223 
On which. 1 grain was found 84 
On which 2 grains were found 47 
On which 3 grains were found 26 
Number. 
On which 4 grains were found 26 
On which 5 grains were found 13 
On which 6 grains were found 5 
On which 7 to 10 grains were found 5 
The flowers examined were taken from trees in different sections 
around Miami and under widely differing weather conditions, so that 
the results probably can be considered a fair average of normal 
pollination for this region. Differences were noted in the comparative 
abundance of pollination on different days and different trees, of 
course, but with one exception these seemed scarcely important 
enough to warrant notice. After a rather strong wind which blew 
for about two days, a higher per cent of pollination was found on 
the Sandersha variety than at any other time. Coupled with this 
was the presence of large quantities of foreign matter on the pistils, 
principally fine particles of sand. The flowers had been thrashed 
about considerably in the wind, and more pollen had reached the 
stigmas than was normally found in calm weather. 
In damp, cloudy weather the pollen grains swell and are much 
more difficult to dislodge than when the weather is dry and sunny. 
