about twenty years. It has larger leaves and a
more bushy habit than P. serpens, while the flowers are produced in
fascicles on the old wood. They are as large as those here figured,
but differ in color, being whitish, with brown-red V-shaped marks.
Both species may be propagated from cuttings. The plants thrive in
sandy peat, and they like plenty of moisture at all times.--_W.
Watson, in The Gardeners' Magazine_.

[Illustration: PENTAPTERYGIUM SERPENS (FLOWERS DEEP CRIMSON)]

* * * * *

THE PERFORATION OF FLOWERS.

The subject of the relations and adaptations which exist between
flowers and insects does not appear to excite as much popular
attention as many other branches of natural science which are no more
interesting. Sprengel, Darwin, and Hermann Muller have been the chief
authors in giving us our present knowledge and interest in the study;
Sir John Lubbock has helped to popularize it, and Prof. W. Trelease
and others have carried on the work in this country.

The perforation as well as the fertilization of flowers has received
attention, but there is a wide field for further study for those who
have leisure to pursue it, as it requires much time and patience, as
well as closeness and accuracy of observation.

The accompanying figures, from drawings by Mr. C.E. Faxon, show a few
characteristic perforations and mutilations, and also represent two of
the principal kinds of insects which make them.

Any one interested in the subject will find an excellent brief review
of the work already done, a fair bibliography, and a list of
perforated flowers in Professor L.H. Pammel's paper on the
"Perforation of Flowers," in the _Transactions of the St. Louis
Academy of Science_, vol. v., pp. 246-277.

The general beauty of flowers is usually not greatly marred by the
perforations except in a few cases, as when the spurs of columbines
and corollas of trumpet creepers are much torn, which frequently
happens.

The great object of the perforations by insects is the obtaining of
the concealed nectar in an easy way. Very naturally, flowers which
depend on insect agency for fertilization rarely produce seed when
punctured if they are not also entered in the normal way. Perforating
is only practiced by a small number of species of insects, and many
but not all of the perforators do so because their tongues are too
short to reach the nectar by entering the flower. Some obtain nectar
fr