OF ARTS AND SCIENCES: OCTOBER 14, 1862. 53 



on the authority of Menzies, has the fragrance of sandal-wood, and 

 was formerly exported as such to China. Stamens all antheriferous and 

 alike, or two of them frequently a little exceeding the others, or with 

 larger anthers. Seed cylindrical : albumen thin, or sometimes wanting. 

 Embryo cylindrical ; the cotyledons as long as the radicle. 



Plantaginacece. 



Notes upon the dimorphism and tendency to diclinism in the flowers 

 of many species of Plantago have been published in Man. Bot. N. 

 U. S., the Botany of the Mexican Boundary, and in Silliman's Journal 

 for Nov. 1862, p. 419. 



Plantago Orbigntana, Steinh. ex Decaisne, appears to be only 

 an andine variety of P. hirtella, a perennial analogue of P. Virginica, 

 and which, like that species, occasionally has the long-stamened and 

 open-flowered form fruitful. Of the var. Orbignyana, only the form 

 with short stamens and connivent-closed corolla is known. In our 

 specimens, the style projects from the apex of the closed corolla in an- 

 thesis ; so that these flowers are not self-fertilized, as has been sup- 

 posed, but cross-fertilized, as in analogous cases. 



Plantago pauciflora. Lam., Barneoud, &c. (P. harbata, Forst., 

 &c. P. polymorpha, Banks & Soland. P. motianthos, D'Urv., Hook. f. 

 &c.) — Fuegia. The distinctions between P. barhata and P. %io- 

 nanthos have been reduced by Dr. Hooker to two ; viz. the want of 

 beard at the base of the leaves in the latter, and the basal portion of 

 the calyx scarcely exceeding the calyx in the former. The character 

 derived from the beard would be expected to break down on considera- 

 tion of Dr. Hooker's varieties of the two, and of what we know of 

 other species. In fact, antarctic specimens with copious beard or wool, 

 and with broad and toothed leaves, — and even some of Hooker's own, 

 from Hermite Island, with long, narrow, entire leaves, — exhibit the 

 funnel-shaped persistent portion of the capsule after dehiscence of twice 

 or thrice the length of the calyx. Decaisne's distinctions in respect to 

 the ovules and seeds are invalidated by Dr. Hookei''s excellent figures, 

 which represent four seeds in each cell of P. monanthos. These an- 

 tarctic forms being evidently all of one species, Forster's name of P. 

 barbata, being inapplicable to the whole species and not very much 

 earlier than Lamarck's, may properly enough give place to the latter. 

 I suspect that Dr. Hooker's specific diagnosis has been drawn between 

 the common antarctic species and the following one, confused with 



7* 



