323 



SHOET NOTES. 



Feknaxdoa, JFelw. — We are sorry to have for tlie second time spelt 

 this name incorrectly, and hasten to give it in its proper form. Dr. 

 Welwitsch's genns of Catalpets is neither " Ferdhiandla " as originally 

 printed in this Jonrnal, Vol. III. p. 330, nor " Terdhiandoa " as at 

 p. 280 of this volume ; but — as was correctly stated in Vol. IV. 

 p. 123 — Fernaudoa. 



DioiciSM IN SiLENE — In a paper read before the Edinburgh Bo- 

 tanical Society in July last, Dr. Buchanan White detailed the results 

 of his examination into the sexual conditions of Sllene marituna and 

 ij?. infiata. Of 72 plants of the former species, 39 were perfectly her- 

 maphrodite ; 11 had the stamens quite abortive, no pollen being pro- 

 duced; whilst 10 had the styles abortive, and 11 showed a tendency 

 towards the same condition ; in one plant both staminate and pistil- 

 late flowers coexisted. In the flowers of the hermaphi-odite plants — 

 which may be distinguished at once by their much larger petals — the 

 stamens and styles were equal in length ; in the unisexual flowers the 

 stamens were a quarter to a half the length of the styles, or four to six 

 times as long as the styles (which were never altogether absent), in 

 the pistiUate and staminate flowers respectively. Of S. infiata, 15 

 plants were examined, of which .5 were perfectly hermaphrodite, 6 en- 

 tirely pistillate, 3 quite staminate and 1 with a tendency to be so. 

 Dr. White further noticed that in every staminate flower {i.e. those in 

 which the styles were generally abortive), and in them only, the anthers 

 were filled with Uat'dago spores ; the styles were in no case affected 

 with the fungus. It is interesting to place this fact by the side of 

 that observed by Miss Becker in plants of the usually dioecious Lychnis 

 diurna (see Journ. of Bot. VII. (L869), 291), where the TJdilago was 

 found in the anthers of all the bisexual flowers. The subject is worthy 

 of further investigation ; the Caryoplujllece Avill be ])robably found to 

 contain othen- occasionally dioecious or subdiojcious species (e. ^. in 

 the genus StelUrria), and the influence on them of the TJdilago antliera- 

 rum, in modifying the relations of the reproductive organs, requires 

 elucidation by a larger number of facts than are yet put on record. 

 (See also a note by M. J. Berkeley in Gard. Chron. 1870, p. 986.) 



Malva borealis, Wallm., neau Dublin. — This occurred appa- 

 rently wild about this city in the antumn of 1869. I enclose speci- 

 mens raised from the seed of the origiiud plants. — Michael Dowd. 



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