37fi PROCEEDINGS OK SOCIETIES. 



and so on, setting up the permanent axis of the plant from a bnd which 

 thus originates from tlie very base of a well-developed radicle, if not from 

 the root itself. — Dr. Asa Gray in Sillunati''s Jviinial, Juli/, 1871. 



Iprorcetirngs of SiDcrclrcs. 



LiNNEAN Society. — Nuvembe)- KSlJi. — G. Benthain, Esq., President, 

 in th chair. — Mr. Jaiisen exhibited specimens of Centanrea soht'dialk, 

 found in a cornfield above Combe Martin, North Devon. " On the 

 Floral Structure of Impatieus fiiha, Nutt., with special reference to 

 the closed self-fertilized flowers," by A. W. Bennett. These have been, 

 on the whole, well described and drawn by Professor Asa Gray in his 

 • Genera of the Plants of the United States,' but the author had ob- 

 served one or two additional points. In the ordinary conspicuous 

 flowers self-fertilization is absolutely prevented by a membranous wing 

 attached to the staminal tube, which completely covers in the pistil, pre- 

 venting the access of pollen, and they seldom bear fruit. The minute 

 closed flowers are far more numerous, and are almost invariably fertilized. 

 The regular calyx and corolla are thrown off from the pistil in the form of 

 a cap, resembling the calyptra of a Moss, which the author suggested is 

 caused by the elasticity of the filaments. The stamens are of an altoge- 

 tlier dift'erent construction from those in the conspicuous flowers, entirely 

 free, strap-shaped in form and with small anthers, containing a very small 

 quantity of pollen. These never dehisce ; but, as is often the case with 

 " cleistogenous " flowers, the pollen grains protrude their tubes while still 

 in the anther, piercing its wall to reach the stigma. The " cleisto- 

 genous " flowers are more numerous than the conspicuous ones in the 

 proportion of at least twenty to one, and are produced throughout the 

 summer synchronously with them, generally on different ]Dlants, occa- 

 sionally on dift'erent branches of the same plant, never on the same branch. 

 The author was unable to detect that the conspicuous flowers are ever 

 visited by insects, and the staminal arrangement seemed to promote al)so- 

 lute sterdity rather than cross-fertilization. The paper concluded with 

 some observations by Mr. Darwin, generally in accordance with those of 

 Mr. Bennett, and especially on the point that the two kinds of flowers are 

 distinct from the outset, and that the closed ones are not the result of 

 " arrested development," as held by Professor Gray. The paper was 

 illustrated by a series of drawings. Mr. Beutham referred to the closed 

 flowers of Viola, and noticed similar conditions in Ononis minndssima and 

 Salvia clandestina ; in the former of these two, the apetalous flowers, 

 however, appear before the normal ones. " Remarks on DoUchos iinijtorus," 

 by N. A. Dalzell. " Floras Hongkongensis Suppleraentum," by H. F. 

 Hance, Ph.D. The author adds seventy-five species to the published 

 Hongkong Flora. The President remarked on the peculiar richness of 

 the flora in number of species, and the interest attaching to several which 

 have become known only through single specimens, or mere fragments 

 accidentally obtained. 



