55 
tain, or whether to help the fly free itself from its incumbrance, or 
for both objects, is matter for conjecture. 
This position of the stigmatic surface adds another to the many 
points of analogy between Apocynaree and Asclepiadacer. There 
8, likewise, a wonderful resemblance in their mode of fertilization, 
at least, in the typical genera. If in any period of their history these 
quadruplex pollen grains of Apocynum should be massed together, 
wad these upward pointing glands should reach and become agglu- 
unated to the pollen masses, Apocynum would have to be classed 
with Asclepiads—with that section which has the glands below the 
pollen masses. It may be, as in the case of Orchids, that these 
Sunilar contrivances have arisen independently; or it may be that Apo- 
‘ynum belongs to an ancestral stock from which the more perfectly 
Specialized Asclepiad has branched off. It is even possible that the 
former is a degenerate descendant of the latter. Much depends 
upon the history of the peculiar glands of the stigma. I do not 
‘uow that their origin has ever been accounted for in Asclepias. 
Brown in a masterly manner traced them from their first appearance 
4s a furrow in the style, and perhaps nothing more can be done. In 
the more varied forms of Apocynacee, however, which seem t» be 
the link between ordinary flowers and that very distinct tribe, it 
may be possible to trace them still further. One consideration per- 
Sents itself forcibly in studying the structure of this flower, that is 
the multiplied series of organs, nine circles in all: 1, the five lobes 
of the calyx; 2, alternate with these the tive lobes of the corolla; 
3, alternate with these the five pink stripes forming a slight crown 
above ; 4, again alternating, the five triangular processes at the base 
of the lobes of the corolla ; 5, alternating with these, or, taking no 
tccount of these, with the divisions of the corolla, the five stamens ; 
6, of course alternating, the five nectaries; 7, the diaphragm 3. 8, the 
glands; 9, the bilobed style. The glands seem to be opposite the 
anthers, as are the lobes of the diaphragm also. What morphological 
value the most of these circles may possess, A. de Candolle has dis-~ 
cussed (Ann. Sci. Nat., 3d Series, Bot., Vol. 1). He considers the 
diaphragm an extension of the filaments, but makes no mention of 
the glands. But these and other questions it is not my present 
Purpose to pursue. = 
wo patina new perhaps, I think I have established—the position 
of the true stiama, and the mode of fertilization. Wo ..de, 
‘6. ARCEUTHOBIUM shedding its seed. —1 visited the swamp in- 
Warrensburg, the first week in October, I found the female plants 
of Arceuthobinm nearly all gone; every effort that I made to cut 
twigs from the matted ‘clumps, where the colonies of these strange 
Parasites prow, bronght them down in showers, Fearing that I 
Should fail to get plants with full seed vessels, I picked a single 
plant with vessels very much swollen. While holding it gently be- 
tween my thumb and finger, to observe it more closely, I felt the 
tiniest recoil of the capsule, and the seed struck me a smart blow 
in the face, IT gathered another, and another, and each pretty little 
