250 Mr. Ch. C. Babington on some species of Cuscuta. 



racters derived from other more apparent parts of the flower are 

 so satisfactory as to render it unnecessary to lay much stress upon 

 these obscure organs. It will be seen that a careful attention to 

 the general form of the scales and their connecting membrane^ 

 neglecting the minute and variable subdivisions^ furnishes us with 

 valuable distinctions for the separation of plants whose outward 

 appearance is extremely similar, but which are constantly found 

 to be parasitical upon plants of diiferent structure or which in- 

 habit distant countries. 



Since attention has been di*awn to these organs, many botanists 

 have endeavoured to form some theory by which to account for 

 their peculiar position in the flower. Their being placed opposite 

 to the stamens and alternating with the segments of the corolla 

 has presented so much difiiculty, that no botanist, as far as I am 

 informed, has ventured to express a positive opinion concerning 

 them, although many have supposed that they represent an inner 

 whorl of stamens in an altered condition. If that is the case, we 

 ought to find the scales alternating with the stamens and not op- 

 posite to them. It thus became necessary to suppose either that 

 an intermediate whorl was totally lost, giving three whorls of sta- 

 mens to the normal state of the flower ; or, that the scales repre- 

 sented some other organs, concerning which no conjecture has 

 been published. 



It will be seen from the sketches which accompany this paper 

 that I have had the good fortune to meet with an undescribed 

 Indian species, C. approximata (Bab. MSS.), in which the scales 

 differ so much from their usual appearance as to lead me to form 

 a theory concerning their origin, which, if allowed to be probable, 

 will tend greatly to confirm the views of those botanists who sup- 

 pose them to represent a whorl of stamens. In all the species, 

 which have been carefully figured, the scales are represented as 

 being separated from each other by a considerable space, and 

 each of them is placed exactly under the insertion of the neigh- 

 bouring stamen; and although in some cases (C europcea for ex- 

 ample) they are rather deeply bifid, still this bifurcation takes place 

 in such a manner as not in the least to lead to the idea that the tAVO 

 parts are not portions of one and the same organ. In C. approx- 

 imata (PL IV. fig. 3) each scale (continuing the usual nomenclature 

 for convenience) is more deeply divided than in any species that 

 has fallen under my notice, or of which I have seen a figure, and 

 the lobes diverge from each other in a very remarkable manner, 

 meeting below at a considerable angle. Again, the space between 

 each scale, which in most, if not all the other species, is broad, 

 deep and rounded, in C approximata is very narrow, and termi- 

 nates below in an extremely acute angle. Thus the appearance 

 of the corona would inevitably lead a person previously unac- 



