natural Family of Plants called Composite. 123 
pappus of the male flower only. Its species are Gnaphalium dioi- 
cum Linn., alpinum L., carpaticum Wablenberg, plantagineum L., 
and G. margaritaceum L. 
The second tribe, consisting of Gnaphalium Leontopodium and 
Oss. Gnaphalium margaritaceum, which l have referred to this genus, was first described 
by Clusius ; from whose account it appears to have been introduced i into the English gar- 
- dens from Ainerica towards the end of the sixteenth century, 
It has ever since been very generally cultivated, as an ornamental plant, both in this 
country and on the continent of Europe; and has a place in several of the European Floras, 
. as well as in those of North America. It is surprising, therefore, that hitherto the male plant 
only should have been observed, uniformly, however, considered as hermaphrodite, except 
by M. Cassini, who in his first memoir on Synantheræ (in Journal de Physique, tome Ixxvi. 
p. 200) suspects it to be male, from the imperfect appearance of the ovarium. 
That this species of Gnaphalium is really dicecious, I learned several years ago from 
the inspection of a specimen of the female plant in the Herbarium of Sir Joseph Banks, 
who found it on the banks of the Rymney in Glamorganshire, where the plant was first 
observed by Lhwyd. I have since received several specimens of both sexes from Mr. Bi- 
cheno, to whom 1 had mentioned this fact, and who obligingly undertook to observe 
the different states of the plant in the same place, where it seems to be really indigenous. 
I have never been able to discover any female florets in the circumference of the capitu- 
lum of the male plant; but in the centre of the female capitulum I have always found 
two or three imperfect male florets, whose antherze, although cohering and of the usual 
form, appear to be destitate of pollen. 
The separation of sexes in a still more common plant of this class, namely, — 
tinctoria, has been equally overlooked. 
All the authors who have noticed this species, which —— in almost every is 
pean Flora, as well as in more than one recent Monograph of the genus, have considered. 
it as hermaphrodite, while it really belongs to Polygamia dicecia, or has its perfect sexual 
-organs on different plants. The hermaphrodite plant, apparently perfect, but which I 
believe very seldom ripens sced, is well figured by Schkuhr (in Botanisches Handbuch, 
tab. 234); and the female, whose stigmata are remarkably developed and undulated, 
while the antheræ are evidently imperfect, and which generally produces ripe seeds, is 
represented in English Botany (tab. 38), in Flora Danica (281), and probably also in 
Svensk Botanik (170). For my knowledge of this fact respecting Serratula tinctoria I 
am indebted to the Rev. Robert Bree of Camberwell, who pointed out to me both its 
states, which he was then disposed to consider as distinct species, 
R 2 Leonto- 
