MONOGBAFTA BEL UKAEirE CALENDULA 1 So 



diserecUtetl system, and ai'ler many yeais devoied to the study of 

 (JdleudulcG — not omitting cidtlvation and experimental hybridisa- 

 tion — to found his arrangement of the species primarily on the 

 duration of tlie life of the plant, arranging them in the two main sec- 

 tions of Annual and Perennial or (juasi-pei'ennial. In this procedure 

 he is certainly justified by the result of his experiments, which prove 

 tluit while hybrids are easily formed between the species of either 

 section they are very ditheidt to obtain between an annual and 

 a pei'ennial sijecies. 



The next step is to an-ange the species within each section accord- 

 ing to leaf and tlower characters (for the nature of which the reader 

 must refer to the work itself), which leads — after some discussion of 

 the views of extreme "lumpers" and " splitters " and an expression 

 of opinion that species may be maintained as suflficiently distinct and 

 recognisable, notwithstanding close affinity and morphological oscil- 

 lation — to the admission of three species onh^ of annuals — C. (egi/j^- 

 li.aca Duf., C, art'ensis L., C. hicolor liaf. ; and seven of perennials — 

 C.fulcjida Uaf., C. Noeana Boiss., C. svffruficosa Vahl, C. iomeu- 

 tosa Desf., C. Ilonanli B. et K., C. maritima Gruss., and C. wach- 

 rensis DC For varieties or subspecies within each of the above 

 species we must have recourse to the achenes, whose heteromor}jhic 

 variations and combinations exhibit a remarkable parallelism in the 

 different species. 



The achenes in CalentluJa are of four different shapes, known as 

 annular, boat-shaped {cymbifurmia), tripterous or winged, and beaked. 

 In all previous works, as for instance in Benth. & Hook. Gen, Plant, 

 ii. 454. we read that the beaked achenes, when present, form the 

 outermost whorl; but by minute examination of the original posi- 

 tion of the young achenes on the receptacle, a position that alters 

 towards maturity. Dr. Lanza proves that the cymbiform achenes 

 are really outside the beaked kind. Winged achenes, except in what 

 Dr. Lanza calls tripterocarpic forms, hardly constitute an independent 

 kind, as both beaked and cymbiform may be either winged or wing- 

 less ; on tlie other hand, annular achenes, which are always the 

 innermost, are relatively constant in shape. Now, in one single 

 species, and, as would appear from some of Dr. Lanza's experiments, 

 even in the descendants of one individual plant, quite different com- 

 binations of these four forms of achenes occur : that is why the 

 attempts to arrange the species themselves according to achene-forms 

 have broken down so hopelessly. For instance, the very common 

 Calendula arvensis appears in no less than six different ''forime 

 carpiccB'''' — (1) exalata rostrata, (2) exalata longirostris, (3) exalata 

 erostris, (4) alata rostrata, (5) alata longirostris, (6) alata erostris. 

 An almost exactly parallel series is found in C cegijptiaca. 



C. Gussoiiei Lanza, hitherto known as C. sicula Cir. (non W,) — 

 a name put aside by Dr. Lanza on grounds that to me do not seem 

 conclusive — is usually easily distinguished from C fuhjida and from 

 allied forms of C. saffruiivom by the absence of all but annular and 

 cvmbiform achenes. Yet I have in my own herbarium a specimen 

 from Taormina determined by Gussone liimself as C. sicitia, which 

 has some beaked achenes as well; and Dr. Lanza has obtained froui 



