DR. a. DICKIE OK ERIOPHORUM ANGUSTIFOLIUM. 161 



no Porms of Eriophorum angustifoUum. By GtEOrge 



IE, M.D., F.L.S . Pmfpssor of Rnf.anv Ahorr^PPn 



[Read Dec. 15, 1864.] 



O^ 13th May last I happened to visit a locality near Aberdeen 

 where Eriopliorum angustifoUum is rather plentiful ; the moor is 

 one of the few places near town which, being still uncultivated, 

 yields a considerable number of wild plants. The Eriophorum 

 was in full flower, and there were obviously two forms of it, one 

 with slender spikes having only stigmas visible, the other with 

 shorter and blunter spikes with very prominent anthers and short 

 stigmas ; specimens of both were collected for more careful exami- 

 nation. In the forms having stigmas alone visible, I found on 

 dissection that in each flower there were three stamens in a 

 rudimentary condition ; and at a later date, May 28th, I found 

 them in the same state, anther and filament together measuring 

 only from a twentieth to a fifteenth of an inch in length, and 

 without a trace of pollen. In the other form the anthers were 

 large and prominent, yielding copious pollen ; the stigmas were 

 shorter than the stamens, but were apparently well formed al- 

 though shrivelled; they had evidently exercised their special 

 function, and this at the time when the stigmas of the other form 

 were stiU fresh and their tissues full of fluid. 



About the end of May the cotton-like appendages were begin- 

 ning to protrude beyond the bracts in both forms. Plants of 

 each were carefully marked for farther observation ; and lest the 

 marks should be accidentally removed or the plants injured by 

 cattle, several were transplanted and kept in a greenhouse that 

 their progress might be noted. It may be necessary to state that 

 the plants were scattered over a surface about an eighth of a mile 

 long by the same in breadth; in four different parts of the nioor 

 I found that the two forms grew quite separate from each other, 

 several yards apart. At only one spot they were intermixed, and 

 here I endeavoured to ascertain whether the two had any con- 

 nexion underground, I failed in tracing any. 



In both forms the seeds apparently reached full ripeness, and 

 on dissection there was no apparent difference. The power of 

 germination being, however, the proper test, about forty seeds of 

 each form were sown under precisely the same conditions. Almost 

 every seed of those from the plants with large anthers and short 

 stigmas sprang and continued to grow ; not more than five or six 

 of the seeds from the other form showed ajny sign of life : the ei- 



XIXK. PHOC. — BOX ANT, VOL. li, M 



