

THE JOURNAL 



OF 



THE LINNEAN SOCIETY. 



Some Morphological Notes on/Jertain Species of Thunhergia. 



By Marcus M. Haetog, M.A., B.Sc, F.L.S. 



[Eead December 21, 1876*.] 



The floral development of this genus has only been cursorily 

 studied by Payer f, who refers to that of the gynaBcium in 

 Thunhergia alata. As there are other points of interest, both as 

 regards the calyx and the plurality of buds in a single axil, while 



the latter phenomenon has alone been studied in its later stages 

 in the general papers of M. G-uillard % and MM. Damaskinos and 

 Bourgeois §, the following notes may be of interest : 



In T. laurifolia we find that the adult flowering node is com- 

 pressed at right angles to the opposite bracts, which finally be- 

 come reflexed. In each axil is a vertical series of flowers, younger 

 as they approach the bract, symmetrical in number and age with 

 their fellows of the opposite axil. They have been described as 

 " whorled ;" but this expression is as incorrect as that of u fasci- 

 cled," if the latter word be confined to its strict sense. For though 

 torsion of the pedicel disguises the true relations of the adult 

 flower, even comparatively advanced buds show that all the flowers 

 have the same orientation ; i. e. the odd petal is anterior or next 

 the common bract ; and it is on this side that the valvate bract- 

 lets first separate. 



* [The absence of the author abroad when this paper was read, and subse- 

 quently its slight modification, have led to its publication being deferred. — Ed.] 



t ' Organogenie/ 587. t Bu H- Soc - Bot - Fr - *▼• 937 



§ Bull. Soc. Bot. Fr. v. p. 598. 



LINN. JOURN. — BOTANY, VOL. XVII. B 



