Botany. SI 9 



sponded with the E. maritimura : one of the stipulas was considerably broader 

 than the other, and cleft about half way down ; a character of no great 

 importance, but, such as it was, differing from both species. I mention the 

 circumstance, because Sir J. E. Smith says expressly that the petals of E. 

 marltimum are not spotted, and makes the following observation with 

 regard to the stamens : — " Mr. Sowerby observed the sportive ^laments to 

 be peculiarly broad, and the perfect ones to have a tooth at each side, near 

 the base." This last mark would greatly strengthen the specific character 

 if it should prove constant, which, in these organs, so various, if not mutable, 

 in this natural order, cannot absolutely be relied on, unless confirmed by 

 experience. — E. K, 



Antirrhinum Linaria. — Sir J. E. Smith says of the common yellow toadflax 

 (Antirrhinum Linaria), that flowers regularly five-cleft, with five spurs and five 

 equal stamens (like the Swedish variety that was so near being exalted by Lin- 

 naeus into a new genus), have been found on the same plant with flowers natu- 

 rally formed. Such a plant is represented in English botany. He observes 

 that the same alteration has been seen in other species, as A. repens, A. spii- 

 rium, &c. Of this last, the flowers have been found with two, three, four, 

 and five spurs, though not on the same plant. The whole genus having this 

 tendency to disguise itself, it may not be thought very remarkable that the 

 A. Linaria should be found with two spurs; but some of your readers may 

 be curious to see, or to possess a specimen of it, in this state. Near the 

 end of June, I gathered a plant of this kind (of which all the flowers were 

 formed in the same manner) from the hedge on the left-hand side of the 

 road, on the ascent of the hill approaching Highgate, from the Spaniards, 

 Hampstead. I left more there ; and, though it is now too late to seek it 

 this year, it may probably be found there, in the same condition, next 

 summer. — Id. 



Scilla nutans, with the bracteas as long as the leaves, and coloured like the 

 fiowers. — I have in my possession a dried specimen of this description ; but, 

 as I remember to have seen the same thing twice, it may not be an uncom- 

 mon variety. — Id. 



Diffusion of Seeds in the Violet. — The various mechanical contrivances 

 by which nature has enabled plants to diffuse their seeds, are matters of 

 common observation ; but I have not met with any description, in works of 

 botany, of the mechanism remarkable in the various species of violets. The 

 seeds of this natural order of plants are contained in a capsule of a single 

 loculament, consisting, however, of three valves. To the inner part of each of 

 these valves the seeds are attached, and remain so for some time after tlie 

 valves, in the process of ripening, have separated and stood open. The 

 influence of the sun's heat, however, causes the sides of each valve to shrink 

 and collapse, and in this state the edges press firmly upon the seed, which, 

 from being before apparently irregular in its arrangement, comes into a 

 straight line. The seeds, it may be remarked, are not only extremely 

 smooth, polished, and shining, but regularly egg-shaped; so that, when 

 pressed upon by the collapsing edge of the valve, it slides gradually down 

 the sloping part of the seed, and throws it with a jerk to a considerable dis- 

 tance. There is another part of the contrivance of nature, for the same 

 purpose, in the Fiolaceae, worthy of remark. Before the seed is ripe, the 

 capsule hangs in a drooping position, with the persisting calyx spread over it 

 like an umbrella, to guard it from the rain and dews, which would retard the 

 process of ripening ; but no sooner is the ripening completed, than the cap- 

 sule becomes upright with the calyx for a support. This upright position 

 appears to be intended by nature to give more effect to the valvular me- 

 chanism for scattering the seeds, as it thus gains a higher elevation (in some 

 cases more than an inch) from which to project them ; and this will give it, 

 according to the laws of projectiles, a very considerable increase of horizon- 

 tal extent. 



