276 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF 



May 6, 1873. 

 Dr. Carson, Yice-President, in the chair. 

 Thirty-two members present. 



Double Flowers in Epigsea repens. Mr. Thomas Meefian ob- 

 served, that on several occasions, during the few past year.**, it 

 had been noticed among the variations in nature^ tliat the ten- 

 dency to produce double flower was, by no means, the special 

 prerogative of the florist to produce. Many of our commonest 

 wild flower, which no one would think of cultivating, had double 

 forms in cultivation which were no doubt originally found wild. 

 Thus we had a double Ranunculus acris, Banunculus bulbosus, 

 li. Ficaria, R. repens^ and some others. He had himself placed 

 on record the discover}^, wild on the Wissahickon, of a double 

 Sa.rifraga Virginica, and this season a fellow member, Dr. James 

 Darrach, had found, in the same location, a doul)le Trailing Arbu- 

 tus, Fpigaea repens. There were, in plants, two methods by which 

 a double flower is produced. The axis of a flower was simpl}^ a 

 branch very much retarded in its development, and generally 

 there were, on this arrested branch, man^' nodes between the 

 series forming the calj'x or corolla, and the regular stamens and 

 carpels, which were entirely suppressed. But when a double 

 flower was produced, sometimes these usually suppressed nodes 

 would become developed, in which case there was a great increase 

 in the number of petals, without any disturbance in the staminal 

 characters. But at other times there Avas no disturbance of the 

 normal ciiaracter of the axis. The stamens themselves merely 

 became petaloid. This was the case in the Epigsea^ now found by 

 Dr. Darrach. He Avas not alone in calling attention to these 

 facts in wild flowers. Dr. Gray and others had recorded instances 

 in the American Naturalist. 



Influence of Cohesion on Change of Characters in Orchideee. 

 Mr. M. also said that in tlie early part of the winter he had 

 exliibitod some flowers of Phaius Tanker mllse, in which, by the 

 mere cohesion of one of the dorsal jjetals with the column, a 

 flower differing very mucli from the general condition was the 

 result ; and that it was evidently the direction of nutrition 

 towards the production of a spur, which resulted in the formation 

 of the labellate petal which gave such a distinguishing character 

 to the general orchidcai flower. At that time he liad observed 

 that ver3^ early in the morning a ver^- small secretion, from what 

 appeared to be incipient glands, miglit be seen at the exterior 

 base of tlie outer petals, and that there was no improbabilit}' that 

 in time an orchi<l would be 2)roduced, whicli would have, from 



