SIR JOHN LUBBOCK ON STIPULES. 217 
On Stipules, their Form and Funetion. By the Rt. Hon. 
Sir Joun Lusvoox, Bart, M.P., F.R.S., DOLL; LED, 
ES. 
[Read 20th February, 1890.] 
VAUCHER, in his * Histoire Physiologique des Plantes, writing of 
Helianthemum, observes :—* J'indique dans ce genre deux prin- 
cipaux objets de recherche. Le premier est la raison pour 
laquelle certaines espèces ont des stipules tandis que d'autres en 
sont privées." No one, however, so far as I know, has yet 
attempted to answer this question, which is one of considerable 
interest, and might be asked with reference to several other 
groups besides the genus Helianthemum. 
There has been a great deal of difference of opinion as to the 
distribution of stipules in the Vegetable Kingdom. DeCandolle * 
stated without any hesitation or qualification that “ Les stipules 
n'existent dans aucune plante monocotylédone." Others, how- 
ever, have been of a very different opinion. The tendrils of 
Smilax, the ligule of Gramineæ, have been regarded as true 
stipules. Into this question I do not now propose to enter. 
DeCandolle also observes that “ Leur existence parait cepen- 
dant liée assez intimement avec la symétrie générale des plantes ; 
car elles existent ou manquent dans toutes les espéces d’une 
famille: ainsi, on trouve des stipules dans les Rubiacées, les Mal- 
vacées, les Amentacées, les Légumineuses, les Rosacées, ete., et 
elles manquent dans toutes les Caryophyllées, les Myrtacées, etc.” 
This, however, is not so general a truth as DeCandolle ima- 
gined. The absence of stipules is not complete in either of the 
families mentioned by him. They occur not only in Spergula 
and Spergularia, which are now generally considered as belonging 
to the Caryophyllez (though certain botanists regard the Alsineæ 
as constituting a separate family), but also in most of the Poly- 
Carpe, and among the Myrtaceæ in Calythrix, Couroupita, and 
perhaps in some other genera. Moreover, as pointed out in the 
above passage from Vaucher, there are even certain genera, and 
in addition to Helianthemum 1 might mention Lathyrus, Genista, 
Cytisus, Passiflora, Acacia, Spirea, Saxifraga, Rosa, Berberis, &c., 
in which some species have stipules while others have none. 
ik Organographie Végétale, vol. i. p. 334. See also Colomb, “ Rech. sur les 
Stipules," in Ann. des Sci. Nat. 1887; 
LINN. JOURN.— BOTANY, VOL XVYIHE. S 
