344 



THE OAEDENER'S MONTHLY 



[November, 



Almost as much may be said for Lobelia syphi- 

 litica (great lobelia). The calla, the caladiums) 

 and the anthuriums, belong to this class, and the 

 list might be indefinitely extended, — Lester J. 

 Ward, in Popular Science Monthly for October. 



The Self Fertilization of Plants. — Mr. Tho- 

 mas Meehan, one of the most' acute and thought- 

 ful of American Botanists, has, several times du- 

 ring the present year, brought before the Phila- 

 delphia Academy of Natural Sciences, the sub- 

 ject of the fertilization of plants. He has observed 

 that there are plants with conspicuous and 

 attractive flowers, which are as much adapted to 

 secure self-fertilization, as other flowers are for 

 cross fertilization. One of his examples is the 

 greenhouse annual Browallia elata, belonging 

 to the order Scrophulariacoe, having an at- 

 tractive blue flower. 



Another phenomenon, the "sleep of plants," 

 or closing of the flowers at night-fall, has been 

 found by Mr. Meehan to result in self-fertilization 

 in Claytonia Virginica, and some buttercups 

 which seed abundantly in the absence of insects. 



In Ranunculus bulbosa, in the evening fol- 

 lowing the first day's expansion of the flower, 

 Mr. Meehan found the immature anthers, and 

 the young pistils covered with pollen grains. On 

 examining the flower he found that the outer 

 series of anthers mature on the first day of open- 

 ing, scattering the pollen on the glazed petals 

 which, on closing for the night, drop it on the 

 immature stamens and pistils as before noted. 

 Another remarkable instance of self-fertilization 

 occurs in Ranunculus abortivus, which does not 

 close its petals at night, but the slender pedicels 

 droop, inverting the flower, and thus allow 

 the pollen to drop on the stigmas. Mr. Meehan 

 concludes that some deeper purpose than has 

 yet been conceived, governs the fertilization of 

 plants. In view of these examples Nature can- 

 not abhor "in and in breeding," and it can 

 hardly be that color, fragrance, and honeyed 

 secretions in flowers have been developed solely 

 to secure cross fertilization. Evolutionists will 

 await with interest, further researches by Mr. 

 Meehan, and confirmatory evidences from other 

 in qu i r ers . — Nature. 



QUERIES. 



Seeds Two Thousand Years Old Growing.— • 

 A correspondent sends us the following from the 

 London Examiner and asks what we think of it : 



"A most interesting observation, referring to 

 the power of germination in seed which is hun- 



dreds and even thousands of years old, is said to 

 have been made by Professor Hendreich in 

 Greece. In the silver mines of Laurium, only 

 the slags left by the ancient Greeks are at pres- 

 ent worked off", in order to gain, after an im- 

 proved modern method, silver still left in that 

 dross. This refuse ore is probably about two 

 thousand years old. Among it, the seed of a 

 species of Glaucium or poppy was found, which 

 had slept in the darkness of the earth during all 

 that time. After a little while, when the slags 

 were brought up and worked ofi" at the melting 

 ovens, there suddenly arose a crop of Glaucium 

 plants, with a beautiful yellow floAver, of a kind 

 unknown in modern botany, but which is de- 

 scribed by Pliny and others as a frequent flower 

 in ancient Greece." 



[We do not "think of it" much. Glauciums with 

 " a beautiful yellow flower " are common enough 

 in Greece. Why do not people who are anxious 

 to know "what to think " about these thing8,put 

 a few Glaucium seeds in a bottle, seal the bottle 

 air tight, and bury in the earth. We would give 

 the " silver mines of Laurium " if we owned 

 them against the seeds remaining vital five years, 

 to say nothing of twenty hundred years. 

 Some day when the Grecians get as many rail- 

 roads ixs we have, and as active scientists to in- 

 vestigate, we fancy plenty of things " unknown 

 to modern Botany," will be found all around 

 them. We know of no evidence satisfactory to 

 us, that any seeds have been found vital under 

 the extraordinary circumstances claimed. The 

 whole theory of great vitality through long peri- 

 ods when buried in the earth, is at best founded 

 on nothing but shrewd guesses, and, in the main 

 on the evidence of persons of no more import- 

 ance in a scientific point of view than those who 

 believe wheat is transformed from chess. — Ed. 

 G. M] 



Orthography of Botanical Names. — J. S. O., 

 Cincinnati, Ohio, asks : " Will you please give us 

 the rule for the terminal i in botanical names? 

 For instance.should we write Smithi, or Smithiif" 

 [It should in Smith's case be Smithii. It is no 

 use to give you the rule unless you are ac- 

 quainted with the Latin language. We can only 

 say that in Latin the form of the genitive de- 

 pends on its nonn'native. When the nominative 

 ends in us, the us changes to i to form the geni- 

 tive. Smithius, the Latin of Smith in the nomi- 

 native case thus makes Smithii in the genitive. 

 There are two i's only because one is already 

 there. 1—Fxl. G. M.] 



