PHANEKOGAMIA. 447 



Mason, F. — Burmah, its People and Natural Productions, &c. In- 

 cluding a Catalogue of Plants, with their vernacular names and 

 native uses. Rangoon, 18G0. 1 vol. 8vo. 



Masters, M. T. — On the Normal and Abnormal Variations from an 

 assumed Type in Plants. Eep. Brit. Ass. 1860. 112. 



Remarks on the Theory of the Metamorphosis of Plants. 



Trans. Ed. Bot. Soc. vii. 54. 



Note on an imusual mode of Germination in the Mango. 



Linn. Journ. vi. 24. With cuts. 



Eeferring to two specimens in the Kew Museum. One of the 

 cotyledons is absent in both : the plumide, in one case, gives oif no 

 shoot at all ; in the other, it gives rise to three shoots from its side : 

 adventitious roots, moreover, spring from one of the cotyledons. 

 On Prolification in Flowers, and especially on that Form 



termed Median Prolification. Linn. Trans, xxiii. 359. 



European Natural Orders most frequently affected by Median 

 Prolification (the development of an adventitious bud from the 

 centre of the flower) are Ranunculaceae, Caryophyllaceae, and 

 Mosaceae : it is also commonly met with in Sci'ophulariaceae, 

 Primulaceae, and Umbelliferae. Mr. Masters considers plants 

 having an 'indefinite' inflorescence to be more subject to it than 

 those with a ' definite' one. The relation is pointed out between 

 this deviation and the normal prolongation of the axis occurring 

 between the whorls of the flower, or in the carpellary cavity. 

 Instances of prolification are figured from Geum rivale, Phlomis 

 fruticosa (in which a sessile adventitious flower-bud and a single 

 carpel with a basilar style occupy the place of the 4-lobed ovary). 

 Digitalis purpurea, Aquilegia, Campan,ula (with a free calyx, and 

 a bud replacing the pistil), and Fuchsia. 

 MiCHALET, Eugene. — Sur la Floraison des Viola de la section 

 NoMiMiTJM, de VOxalis acetosella et du Linaria spuria. Bull. 

 Soc. Botan. vii. p. 465. 



The structure of the so-caUed 'apetalous' flowers of Viola alba, 

 Bess, is described. These are found to have minute hyaline 

 petals, sometimes reduced to one or two in number. The anthers 

 were never foimd open, even in flowers the ovary of which had 

 been fecundated. The stigma is described as obliquely truncate 

 and hoUowed into a funnel, the lower part of which communicated 

 directly with the cavity of the ovary. After fecundation, the 

 canal becomes obliterated. The mode of fertilization of the 

 ovules remains obscure. F. hirta and V. odorata present a similar 

 structure in their ' apetalous flowers.' 



In Oxalis acetosella, M. Michalet finds the ordinary pedun- 

 cidate spring flowers to be succeeded by others about the size 

 of a pin's head, very shortly pedunculate and often hypogean. 

 The structure of these is described. The emission of pollen 

 from the anthers has not been observed. The seeds produced by 

 these flowers do not appear to difter from those of the first 



