Harris — Polygamy and Certain Floral Abnormalities. 187 



(vel in abortivis decurtatus)." Gray, in the Synoptical 

 Flora, says: " Sometimes polygamous, through the abortion 

 of the pistil of many of the flowers." 



Dunal, in De CandoUe's Prodi^omus, recognizes, in his Con- 

 spectus Generis SoJani, two sections, Pachystemonwn and 

 Leptostemonum, which he further divides quite extensively. 

 One of these ultimate divisions, Polygama, of the subsection 

 Euleptostemonum of his second section Leptostemonum, he 

 devotes to those species with " floribus polygamis, calycibus 

 floruni femineorum post anthesin auctis," and includes in it 

 his numbers 477-479. Of Mogenoplum of the third subsec- 

 tion, Asterofrichotmn, of Leptostemonum, he says: " Floribus 

 pluribus abortivis. In flore fertile, stylus antheris longior; 

 in floribus sterilibus, stylus filamentorum longitudine," and 

 of Melongena of the same subsection he says: " Pedun- 

 culis * * * interdum solitariis unifloris, saepius inferne 

 bifidis; pedicello infero, e caule nascente, florem unicum fer- 

 tilem gerente, post anthesin cernuo ; pedunculi altera parte 

 multiflora, flores steriles gerente. In flore fertile, calyx post 

 anthesin crescens, aculeatus in speciebus aculeatis; stylus an- 

 theris longior. In flore sterile, calyx inermis, aut vix acu- 

 leatus in spec, aculeatis; stylus longitudine filamentorum." 

 In Dunal' s arrangement Mogenoplum includes numbers 773- 

 802, while the following section, Melongena, includes 803-851. 

 Thus from his synopsis of species, 82 of his 898 species would 

 be characterized as polygamous. 



Sendtner in Flora Brasiliensis , uses a somewhat different 

 method of division, employing three main sections, and 

 nowhere giving any division to those with polygamous 

 inflorescence. Wettstein in Die JSfaturUchen Pflanzenfamil- 

 ien recognizes five sections. Dunal has been criticised by 

 systematists for his treatment of the genus, and it certainly 

 seems not improbable that the arrangement may ultimately 

 be different from any so far proposed. 



Darwin publishes * a letter from Fritz Mueller to himself in 

 which some South American species of Solanum with long- 



* Nature 17 : 78-79. 1877-1878. 



