Flowers and Insects. XIII

DODECATHEON MEADIA L.-American cowslip, shootingstar. In his arrangement of floral mechanisms Delpino (2) recognizes a class of pendulous nodding or horizontal flowers upon which the visitors cling (apparrecchi prensili), which he divides into the borrage and the verbascum types (tipo borragineo, tipo verbascino). The former includes such flowers as Dodecatheon, Cyclamnen, and Solanumn, which the bees clasp in such a way as to receive the pollen upon the undersides of their bodies, and the latter contains flowers like Verbascumn and Tradescantia, which are provided with hairs which afford a foot-hold. Kerner (I) regards the reflexed petals as facilitating access to nectar and pollen, and this is true as regards the legitimate visitors. Intruders are much more effectually excluded than would be the case if the petals were less strongly reflexed, as in the flowers of Erythronium.2 The approximation of the anthers in a compact cone also gives the flower a signal advantage over such a flower as Ribes gracile,3 whose stamens being of the ordinary form permit the visits of a number of insects which the flower cannot utilize. The reflexed petals also render the nodding flowers much more conspicuous and attractive than they would be if the expanded petals faced the ground. Loew (3) has figured and thoroughly described Dodecatheon integrifoliun Michx. (=D. Meadia L.), D. 7effreyi Moore (=-D. Meadia var. iancifoliumn Gray), and an unnamed species from material growing in the Berlin Garden. To this I shall add an account of D. Meadia as observed under natural conditions in Illinois. The plant is common in prairies and open woods, where it grows in rather large patches. The scapes rise from 3 to 6dm and bear numerous, handsome flowers, which are white or rose color. The corolla has a short tube, which for