Trelease.] 
430 
[March 15* 
tar marks, the blue color of the anthers perhaps serving as a second- 
ary mark. Only the upper pair of the four stamens are pollinif- 
erous, and in these one cell of the anther is aborted, while the 
other is seated on a rounded connective, fig. 38. The connection, 
of each sterile stamen is developed into an anchor-like appendage 
at the end of the filament, which is of the same length as in the 
tile stamens, fig. 37. 
In a newly opened flower the pistil is immature, its style bent 
up against the corolla with the two lobes of the unreceptive 
stigma in contact. The fertile stamens are dehiscent, their fila- 
ments arched forward, while the sterile stamens are appressed to 
the corolla on either side of the middle lobe, below, figs. 33-34. 
After several days the anthers have become brown, the pollen, if 
it has not been removed, being apparently spoiled. Meantime, 
the filaments have bent upward and are now pressed to the 
corolla, out of the way, while their place has been taken by the 
style that has bent upward and exposed its now mature stigma, 
fig. 35. The sterile stamens experience no change. 
From the protandry and the relation of the parts, close fertili- 
zation is improbable, yet it would not be surprising if it should 
sometimes occur through the preservation of the pollen in the 
anthers and the removal of a portion by the stigma as these 
organs pass in changing places. 
Crossing is well provided for by the secretion of nectar, pro- 
tected from inclement weather and unbidden guests. The struc- 
tures which show its location to favored insects and cause them 
to occupy positions relatively the same on different flowers sub- 
serve the same end. The blue color of the anthers is very likely 
a secondary nectar mark, as has been stated, its function being 
that of the colored stamens in Delpino’s verbascoid type of 
flowers, though the known occurrence of colored anthers in some 
anemophilous flowers, e. g. many grasses, renders this point open 
to question. The insects to which the flowers are best adapted by 
their size and form are bees of medium size, which find the lower 
lip a convenient alighting place. If my interpretation is correct 
they will be found to clasp the filaments of the fertile stamens 
with their fore legs, the middle and hind legs holding to the ster- 
ile filaments, while their tongues are inserted into the corolla for 
