199 DR. M. T. MASTERS ON REMARKABLE MALFORMATIONS 
or less recurved or hooklike at their points ; the inner ones are 
smaller, and either merely white and membranous like the ordi- 
nary lodicles, or they exhibit various intermediate stages between 
the state of scales and that of feathery stigmata (fig. 1, b, c). I 
have not been enabled to discover, in any of the very numerous spe- 
cimens examined, the slightest trace either of stamens or of ovules. 
Fig. 1. 
W 
DEOU TP 
NOV Ler KE 
Ww WWW (WZ 
E Ap eo 7 
j CF 
{ 
b. 
c. a 
a. Floret showing outer palea partially stigmatic ; inner palea partly divided 
into two, and enclosing a number of scales. 5, c. Inner scales from florets, 
showing tendency to assume appearance of the pistil. 
To sum up the peculiarities afforded by these specimens, it may 
be said that they present a diminished number of florets, an alter- 
ation in the form of the spikelet, a change in the number and 
disposition of the pales, a partial chloranthie condition of the 
inner constituents of the florets, a multiplication of these consti- 
tuents, and a tendency in them to assume the nature of the pistil. 
In a third series of specimens the changes that have taken 
place are yet more grave and singular. In the lower part of the 
spike the spikelets are of the ordinary form, and are arranged 
singly and alternately on the sides of the grooved rachis; but 
towards the upper part of the spike a change in the disposition 
takes place, and the spikelets become arranged in pairs on each 
notch of the rachis, as they are in Elymus or Hordeum, the pairs 
being arranged alternately as usual, but in four or more rows 
instead of in two. 
The spikelets themselves are more or less spherical in form, 
each has an outer and inner glume of the ordinary aspect, and 
is made up of a number of florets arranged, not in two rows, but 
in several, and, owing to the shortening of the rachis of the spike- 
let, they are densely tufted. So closely are the florets crowded, 
that in many instances a fusion of the outer palez of two con- 
tiguous florets has taken place. This double palea shows eleven 
ribs, five on each half, and a central one in the line of fusion. 
