42 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 



long period of hot and dry weather can reduce a tall branching 

 plant, to alow branchless one, and may show under what influences 

 plants may acquire the leafless scapes and radical leaves which are 

 characteristic of so many species. — Jos. F. James, Cincinnati, Ohio. 



Proterandry in Amaryllis reginse. — The species here 



named is now occasionally cultivated from South America as a 

 house plant, for which purpose it possesses many desirable charac- 

 teristics. The large crimson-red, nodding flowers exhibit proteran- 

 dry in a manner easily observed. The stamens are in two sets of 

 three each, the outer being somewhat shorter than the inner. They 

 are all nearly straight at first but soon begin to curve upward. 



The anthers are versatile, and when first appearing are f of an 

 inch in length. From six to ten hours after the flower opens the 

 dehiscence of the anthers takes place by a gradual splitting open 

 on each side, the valves rolling up so as to hide their external sur- 

 face completely from view; or in other words the anther is turned 

 inside out. At the same time the valves become fluted like a ruffle 

 thereby shortening the anther so that when the dehiscence is com- 

 plete the anther is only about 3-16 of an inch long. The dehis- 

 cence takes place in the short stamens about four or five hours be- 

 fore it does in the long ones. The pollen is very abundant, forming 

 nearly one-half the bulk of the anther. The styles of the three- 

 celled ovary are united into one, with a three-lobed stigma. During 

 the dehiscence of the anthers the stigma remains closed, and is 

 turned downward away from the anthers, thus preventing any pol- 

 len from coming in contact with it. After about twenty -four hours 

 the style curves upwards, and the lobes of the stigma turn back, or 

 open, and are ready to receive the pollen. This, however, must 

 now come from a fresh anther of another flower. From the 

 structure of the flower, and the character of the pollen it is well 

 nigh impossible that the latter could be brought to the stigma by 

 the wind. No doubt, therefore, this Amaryllis in its native region 

 is wholly dependent for its fertilization upon some insect, probably 

 some moth with a long proboscis. To this end a liberal supply of 

 nectar is secreted at the bottom of the perianth. — J. Tkoop, Botan- 

 ical Laboratory, Ithaca, N. Y. 



Grape Mildew. — In the Gazette for March I stated that the 

 conidia of Peronospora viticola were not known to occur on the 

 flowers and young berries of the grape in this country. The 

 remark is untrue as far as the Western States is concerned, for in 

 the Transactions of the St. Louis Academy of Science of Sept. 16, 

 1861, Dr. Engelmann mentions that in Missouri the fungus appears 

 in June, and on the pedicels and young berries when they are of 

 the size of small peas or smaller, although he had never seen it on 

 full grown berries. The early occurrence of the fungus in Missouri 



