3 



Akin to such external eccentricities is a difference in the char- 

 acter of the pollen. Some of the species, like T, angustifolia 

 and its near allies, have the pollen in single grains, varying in 

 size from Win* inch to yio inch, while in T. latifolia and T. Lax- 

 maiuii the pollen is united in fours. The outlines of the four 

 cells may be readily discerned under the microscope ; and in 

 some cases the grains are partially and occasionally wholly disin- 

 tegrated, showing that the union Is merely mechanical. 



The floral organs are curious structures. They consist of 

 numerous hair-like bodies, fertile and sterile, and densely crowded 

 together in a compact mass upon the rachis. The stamens are 

 single or most commonly 2-7 anthers united upon a connate 

 capillary filament (see fig. i). By grasping the anthers when 

 fresh, they may be pulled apart and the filament torn into sep- 

 arate threads, showing, as in the case of the pollen, that the union 

 is mere adherence. 



Surrounding the stamens in all the species which I have ex- 

 amined are what in our ignorance of their use are commonly 

 called bracts^ ox sometimes simply hairs. (See figures I, 8, 9), 

 When much magnified, these bodies appear to be naked, loosely 

 cellular threads or ribbons, expanding upwards cuneately, or with 

 a small clavate or spatulate tip which terminates in one or more 

 projecting hairs. (See figures 10 and ii). I confess that these 

 so-called male bracts seem to me more like imperfect pistillate 

 flowers, bearing spatulate-lanceolate stigmas, than like bracts. 

 Similar bodies occur in the pistillate inflorescence of some of the 

 species. They bear no appearance of being transformed leaves. 

 They do not seem to serve a protective purpose. It would ac- 

 cord with our modern evolutionary ideas to regard them as dis- 

 used and degraded organs, their former utility having passed to 

 the fertile flowers of the pistillate inflorescence, owing to the su- 

 perior advantages of the latter for cross-fertilization. 



The fertile flowers consist of a single capillary pistil, the ovary 

 more or less stipitate, the style short and terminated by a rhom- 

 boid, spatulate or linear stigma, as shown in fig. 4. The calyx is 

 composed of numerous (20-40) white, delicate setae girding the 

 base of the stipe, and of different lengths in the different species. 

 Very much magnified, these setee present the appearance shown 



