200 Rhodora [SEPTEMBER 
of gynodioecism. He called attention to the observation by Darwin ! 
that in England there were two kinds of stocks of Plantago lanceolata, 
of which one had perfect and the other pistillate flowers. The flowers 
of the pistillate stocks did, indeed, bear anthers, but there was either 
no pollen at all or only a few imperfect grains of varying size. Accord- 
ing to a communication from Delpino to Ludwig, there were in Italy 
three geographic varieties of P. lanceolata, of which one only, the 
early spring form of the meadows, was dimorphous. One form had 
broad white anthers with an abundance of pollen; the other broad 
green-yellow anthers with scanty pollen but regular dehiscence, still 
an hermaphrodite form, but verging toward the gynodioecious con- 
dition. In Germany, Ludwig himself found that all the habitat 
and geographic variations exhibited three flower forms: 1) the ordi- 
nary hermaphrodite, with long straight filaments bearing broad, 
roundish to heart-shaped white anthers containing plentiful pollen, 2) 
a form with short, crooked filaments bearing slender, green to sulphur- 
yellow irregularly dehiscent anthers, with abortive pollen, and 3) a 
purely pistillate form with no filaments and very small rudimentary 
yellow-green or brownish anthers. He thought that the second of 
these forms was identical with Darwin’s “female form,” but the 
descriptions do not agree well enough to establish their identity 
beyond question. 
With regard to the relative frequency of the forms, Ludwig found 
that in general the second was much scarcer than the first, and that 
the third was much more infrequent than the second. He observed 
that the pistillate form was characterized by extreme fertility, whereas 
1 Darwin’s own statement (Forms of Flowers, ed. 2, pp. 306-307) is as follows: 
'....But I have found in two localities in England female and hermaphrodite 
forms existing together, and the same fact has been noticed by others. (Mr. C. W. 
Crocker in ‘The Gardener’s Chronicle,’ 1864, p. 294. Mr. W. Marshall writes to me 
to the same effect from Ely.) The females are less frequent than the hermaphrodites; 
their stamens are short, and their anthers, which are of a brighter green while young 
than those of the other form, dehisce properly, yet contain either no pollen, or a small 
amount of imperfect grains of variable size. All the flower heads on a plant belong 
to the same form. It is well known that this species is strongly proterogynous, and 
I found that the protruding stigmas of both the hermaphrodite and female flowers 
were penetrated by pollen tubes, whilst their own anthers were immature, and had not 
escaped out of the bud. Plantago media does not present two forms; but it appears 
from Asa Gray’s description (‘Manual of the Botany of the N. United States,” 2nd. 
edit. 1856, p. 269. See also ‘American Journal of Science, Nov. 1862, p. 419, and 
‘Proc. American Academy of Science,’ Oct. 14, 1862, p. 53.) that such is the case with 
four of the North American species. The corolla does not properly expand in the 
short-stamened form of these plants.” 
