148 MR. С. DRESSER'8 CONTRIBUTIONS 
some other points. The proper place of A. Bidwelli is probably 
also among Gummifere. I had only seen it in fruit, when the real 
inflorescence is not always very certain; and I doubted whether the 
eapitula were fiot sometimes racemose: but most probably they are 
(as in A. pallida) solitary, with the bract in the middle of the pe- 
duncle, the scar of which has sometimes the appearance of the scar of 
of a pedicel. Dr. Mueller's specimens, No. 76, are also without spines, 
and have much more numerous pinnz than he describes (15 to 20 pairs 
with leaflets barely 2 lines long). These are, like Bidwell’s, in fruit 
only. There is, however, a flowering specimen of Dr. Mueller's marked 
75, from M‘Adam’s Range, which answers better to his character, and has 
the stipular spines of Gummifere. In it the pinne vary from З to 11 
pairs, and the leaflets are 3 to 4 lines long. These clearly indicate the 
affinity of the species with A. suberosa, from which it differs in the usually 
numerous pinne and the broader pod. It remains to be proved whether : 
it be specifically distinct from А. Bidwelli, which has the leaflets seldom 
` lline long, and the pod, although unripe, already above 4 inches, and 
marked with veins, which may possibly disappear when the pod is ripe. 
` —G. B.] 
-_ 
Contributions 46 Organographic Botany. By CHRISTOPHER 
DressEx, Esq. Communicated by the Secretary. 
[Read April 1st, 1858.] 
[ Abstract. ] 
Мв. DnzssER passes successively under review the scales of the 
. leaf-buds, the bracts, the sepals, the petals, the stamens, and the 
carpels of plants, with the view of showing that they are not, as 
usually considered, metamorphosed leaves, but metamorphosed leaf- 
stalks or petioles. 
In support of this view, in relation to the development of leaf- 
buds, he enters into a detail of the structure of the Horse-chestnut, 
the Sycamore, the Walnut, the Cherry, the Currant, &c., but ad- 
mits that in some instances, the Holly for example, the scales are 
more obviously analogous to the lamina of the leaf. With regard to 
bracts he instances Angelica officinalis and Salvia fulgens, in the 
latter of which he particularly calls attention to certain monster 
bracts and their venations, as affording clear evidence of their 
petiolar origin. The cases adduced in proof of a similar origin in 
the calycine leaves are, first, the abnormal development of one of 
the sepals in Mussenda ; secondly, the frequent greater or less 
development of foliola upon the margins of the sepal in roses, 
which sepal consequently is to be regarded as equivalent to the 
