32i CLEISTOGAMIC FLOWERS. Chap. VIII. 



crowded yielded an average of only 48. Sixteen cap- 

 sules from perfect flowers artificially crossed with pol- 

 len from another plant contained on an average 93 

 seeds, with a maximum of 137. Thirteen capsules from 

 self -fertilised perfect flowers gave an average of 62 seeds, 

 with a maximum of 135. Therefore the capsules from 

 the cleistogamic flowers contained fewer seeds than 

 those from perfect flowers when cross-fertilised, and 

 slightly more than those from perfect flowers self-fer- 

 tilised. 



Dr. Kuhn believes that the Abyssinian V. sessiflora 

 does not differ specifically from the foregoing species. 

 But its cleistogamic flowers apparently include four an- 

 thers instead of two as above described. The plants, 

 moreover, of V. sessiflora produce subterranean runners 

 which yield capsules; and I never saw a trace of such 

 runners in V. nummularifolia, although many plants 

 were cultivated. 



Linaria spuria. — Michalet says * that short, thin, 

 twisted branches are developed from the buds in the 

 axils of the lower leaves, and that these bury them- 

 selves in the ground. They there produce flowers not 

 offering any peculiarity in structure, excepting that 

 their corollas, though properly coloured, are deformed. 

 These flowers may perhaps be ranked as cleistogamic, 

 as they are developed, and not merely drawn, beneath 

 the ground. 



Ononis columnce. — Plants were raised" from seeds 

 sent me from Northern Italy. The sepals of the 

 cleistogamic flowers are elongated and closely pressed 

 together; the petals are much reduced in size, colour- 

 less, and folded over the interior organs. The fila- 

 ments of the ten stamens are united into a tube, and 



* 'Bull. Soc. Bot. de France/ torn. vii. 1860, p. 468. 



