100 



ME. MASTEES ON MOtfSTEOTTS FLOWEES. 



the combined intrapetiolar stipules of Melianthus, and the two- 

 cleft adnate appendages to the petals in the Caryophyllece. 

 Another view is that taken by a writer in Hooker's Journal of 

 Botany for 1849, where they are considered to be in most cases 

 deformed glands, the writer adducing, among other reasons for so 

 considering them, the fact of " their gradual passage into anthers 

 in some flowers," in accordance with his notion that the formation 

 of anthers is due to the conversion of the glands of the staminal 

 leaf into those organs. 



"Without wishing to enter into the question of the morphological 

 import of the so-called glands in general, the object of the present 

 communication is to bring forward evidence to show that the scale 

 on the petals of the CaryopTiyllece is in reality a double organ, 

 consisting of two abortive stamens united together. The double 

 nature of the scale is very manifest. In Dianthus there are two 

 plates projecting from the claw of the petal. In most of the 

 species of Silene the two plates are quite detached one from the 

 other, and from the petal itself at the point of junction between 

 the claw and the blade ; hence in systematic works the appendage 

 is described as bifid, while in some species, as S. cerastoides, Cucu- 

 lalus lacciferus, &c. &c, the appendage is quadrifid, — an indication, 

 as it were, of two two-lobed anthers. The double nature of the 

 scales is almost equally obvious in the flowers of the Sapindacece, 

 particularly in certain species of Cupania and Urvillea. 



In some young flower-buds of a semi-double variety of Saponaria 

 officinalis that have recently been examined, the scales were found 



in some instances to be completely divided into two strap-shaped 

 bodies, standing in front of the petal, and quite distinct from it. 

 In one example the scale, single below, was bifurcated above, each 

 subdivision bearing an anther. Several similar scales were found 



