1897.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 183 



mass of reticulated veinlets unequalled in any other species I have 

 seen. Turuing to Hyperium prolifieum I find many semi-pellucid 

 dots in the petals, especially near the margin, and some of them 

 elongated, and in a number of cases they have met others and 

 formed an elongated pellucid vein. 



I think these pellucid dots are the initial steps taken by the plant 

 in the formation of veinlets and veins. It cannot for an instant be 

 conceived that nature first makes a skeleton leaf and then covers it 

 with parenchymatous tissue. These strengthening ribs must be 

 constructed out of cell-tissue only as the organism needs them. And 

 this construction can only go on under a regularly arranged system. 

 There can be no theoretical reason against the view I have taken of 

 the nature and office of these pellucid dots. 



I think little has been written regarding the variable character of 

 these dots. The only author I have found is Bromfield, who was, 

 in a measure, my early patron and preceptor in botanical study. 

 In Flora Vectensis, writing of H. perforatum, he takes occasion to 

 note the difference in the character of the dots in various species, 

 which, in some, take the form of anastomosing pellucid veins. " I 

 do not find," he concludes, " any notice taken of this character by 

 any author I have consulted." I have seen none since his work ap- 

 peared in 1856. 



HONEY GLANDS OF FLOWERS. 



It is impossible to take up any subject connected with the be- 

 havior of plants without a thought of the wonderful labors of Dar- 

 win in the same line. We owe him warmest gratitude for the di- 

 rection he has trained us to folhpw. But some of us believe that the 

 great field of vision he opened up to us is broader than ever he him- 

 self suspected, and that many more behaviors of plants are to be 

 seen and interpreted than it was given to him to behold and ex- 

 plain. It is, moreover, clear that the a priori line on which he 

 started must naturally bias judgment. It is not in human nature to 

 be free from such bias. Feeling that every act and behavior of a 

 plant must originate in a selfish effort for its own good, the doctrine 

 of natural selection naturally followed. The natural condition of 

 life being that of continual war, every effort of a plant was to secure 

 some advantage in this great struggle. Whatever helped this view 

 could not but be welcomed, even by one who was so unusually fair 

 minded as Darwin. Whatever did not accord with his premises, 

 could not be considered as of much importance. Some of us have 



