162 DR. G^. DICKIE ON ERIOPHOBrM: ANaUSTIFOLIUM. 



periment was repeated with the same result. It may be necessary 

 to state that the seeds were taken, from plants of the two forma 

 growing several yards apart ; seeds from individuals growing 

 intermixed were unfortunately not secured for experiment : it is 

 probable that the result would have been different, close proximity 

 of the two being more likely to insure fecundation of the one by 

 the other. 



The genus Mriophorum is usually defined as hermaphrodite ; 

 at least one species must be considered an exception, E, ajigusti- 

 folium having two forms, one truly hermaphrodite, the other 

 structurally bisexual, but virtually unisexual, the stamens remain- 

 ing rudimentary and producing no pollen. Having examined 

 some duplicates of this species from the shores of Davis Straits, 

 - I find that they also have the two forms. 



It is usual to speak of plants as either hermaphrodite or else 

 bisexual, but in this respect animals and plants may not in every 

 case be strictly parallel. If, as I presume is the ordinary view, 

 flowers of most plants high in the scale are really composite in 

 their nature — as the entire plant is — then only can we say in 

 strict terms that a flower with a single stamen and a solitary 

 pistil is hermaphrodite; such a case may, however, be either 

 homomorphous or heteromorphous. In cases where several per- 

 fect stamens occur, either in one whorl or in more than one, 

 -there may be only apparent homomorphism ; I presume it has not 

 been proved that the pollen of each individual stamen is equally 

 capable of fertilizing the pistil or pistils of that flower. May 

 there not be cases in which stamens of the one whorl are intended 

 to influence the contiguous pistil, and those of the other to fer- 

 tilize, by various agents, the ovules of some other flower ? This 

 is mere conjecture, but there may be some ground for it when 

 we remember that diff^erent stamens in the same flower attam 



w 



maturity at distinct periods, and, in some cases, stigmas and sta- 

 mens in the same flower also diff'er in this respect. Plants m 

 which dehiscence of anthers is extrorse also deserve consideration 

 in relation to this subject. 



