26 MR. A. W. BENKETT ON PAUNASSTA PALUSTRIS. 



present an anomaly in the otlierw"isc quinary arrangement of the 

 parts of the flower. Foreign species, lioweyer, present a more 

 symmetrical structure. The drawing of Farnassia Kotzehui in 

 Hooker's * Flora Boreali-americana ' clearly indicates 5 stig- 

 mata ; and Dr. Seemann, in his ' Botany of the Herald/ speaks of 

 frequently gathering both that species and P. palustris with 5 

 stigmata. Prof Eoper also records, in the ' Botanische Zeitung ' 

 (vol. X. p. 187), his supreme delight, after inspecting more than a 

 thousand flowers of P. paliistris, in being at length rew^arded by 

 gathering one with 5 stigmata. Dr. Hooker, on the other hand, 

 describes Himalayan species with only 3 stigmata. , If, therefore, 

 we are to take the number of stigmata hxParnassia as variable froin 

 3 to 5, with 5 as the normal number, as shown by the reversion 

 of P. palustr is, it will assimilate the genus more closely to Dro- 

 ^er«, while removing it still further from Saocifi^aga, 



The most remarkable feature, however, in the physiology of 

 Farnassia is the phenomena attending its fecundation, which I 

 had an opportunity of observing somewhat closely during a stay 

 last summer in Argyleshire. The fullest and most accurate 

 description of these phenomena hitherto published I find in 

 Vaucher^s ' Histoire physiologique des Plantes d'Europe,' from 

 which I translate as follows : — "The physiological phenomena 

 w^hich Farnassia presents belong chiefly to its fecundation. When 

 the flower is fully open, the filaments, at first very short, suddenly 

 lengthen, and place the anthers on the top of the ovary, so that 

 all the glandular globules, and especially the scale which bears 

 them, and which is covered with little drops of honey, can dissolve 

 the pollen with which they are sprinkled. This operation accom- 

 plished, the anther falls and disconnects itself, and the filament 

 resumes its original place. Each of the anthers successively 

 executes the same movement; but those which succeed each 

 other are alternate, and not contiguous, so that the march of the 

 phenomenon is never interrupted. The anthers are extrorse and 

 somewhat lateral j the pollen consequently cannot fall on the 

 stigma, but falls on the nectaries, which are, as it were, smeared 

 with it, and only the emanation from which can, I tliink, fertilize 

 the stigmata. It would be difficult, at least, to assign any other 

 function than that of the absorption of the pollen to this nectary, 

 so remarkable and so constant in all the species of the genus. 

 What confirms my conjecture isj that the stigmata are entirely 

 invisible while the anthers are discharging their pollen, and that 



