May 1, 1869.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



101 



suckle, which is depicted in fig. Go. In a normal 

 state, the flowers are produced in whorls, but the 

 whorls are sessile one upon another, so as to form a 

 sort of flat head or coronet. Each floret is placed 

 within two fleshy bracts, which are thickened as the 

 fruit ripens, and become, like the fruit, juicy and of 



Fig. 03. 



a red colour. The florets have no stalks. A refer- 

 ence to the drawing wjll show how greatly this 

 curious specimen differed from an ordinary Honey- 

 suckle blossom. The flower-head was lengthened 

 into a rather elegant spray, because the whorls of 

 florets (fig. 64) were separated from each other by 

 intervening portions of stem. The bracts were 

 thinner, larger, and more leaf-like than they usually 



are, and instead of being in pairs, were in fours, 

 forming what appeared at first sight to be a four- 

 partite calyx. Erom within these four bracts pro- 

 ceeded generally two florets, on stalks half an inch 

 in length, the florets of a yellowish-green colour* 

 considerably shortened, and very monstrous in form, 



Fig. G4. 



their internal organs being changed into petals. In 

 one instance (fig. 65), instead of the stamens and 

 pistil being simply converted into petals, there were 



Fig. 65. 



two stalks produced from the centre of u the flower, 

 each bearing a bud enclosed in bracts like those 

 below the flowers. It is rather remarkable that 

 this flower, so very abnormal in form and colour, 

 had lost very little, if any, of its perfume. We saw 

 several other examples, but none so perfect, or 

 rather imperfect, as this one. 



The common Knapweed (Centaurea nigra) is 

 very prone to produce small abortive flower-heads 

 in the autumn — perhaps always. When this is the 

 case, the upper leaves of the plant become much 

 more developed. We found several examples 

 during our ramble in Wales ; some (fig. 66) in 

 which the flower-heads were reduced to a few small 

 brown scales ; but the energy of the plant had ex- 



