232 THE JOURNAL OF BOTAXY 



5-merous, Onicianella as -A-S-meroiis, while the eoroUa of VaiUanfia 

 is 3-partite in the male flowers and 4-partite in the hermaphrodite 

 flowers. The seven other genera including Galium and Asperula 

 are described as 4-merous. 



In view of the foregoing, meristic variation in the sj^ecies would 

 be anticipated. This anticipation is amply fulfilled, as is shown by 

 the results of an examination of 1000 flowers each of three species of 

 Asperula and seven species of Galium given on preceding page. 



The material of Galium horeale, Aspernla c/alioides, and A. tinc- 

 toria was obtained from 25lants cultivated in the Koj^al Botanic 

 Gardens, Kew, between June 23rd and July 6th, 1922. The material 

 of the remaining species was collected from the district round Odiham, 

 Hampshire, between the same dates. 



Attention is specially drawn to the interesting figures for Asperula 

 tinctoria, which has a very high percentage of trimerous flowers and 

 0'6 per cent, of dimerous flowers. Penzig found that trimerous 

 flowers preponderated in A. tinctoria and frequently occurred in all 

 other species examined by him (Penzig, /. c. ii. 39). He records 

 liexamerous flowers in Galium Aparine, G. Mollugo, and G. verum. 

 Unfortunately he gives no statistics, thus considerably lessening the 

 value of his observ^ations. 



GEORGE SIMONDS BOULGER 

 (1853-1922). 



George Simonds Boulger, the second son of Dr. Edward Boulger 

 who was in general practice there, was born on March 5, 1853, at 

 Bletchingley, Surrey. From his earliest childhood he was devoted to 

 science ; he began to collect specimens of woods wdien he was seven, 

 and wrote " Boulger's Notes on Astronomy." He was noted for his 

 excellent memory, which he always retained ; before he went to 

 school he could repeat long extracts from Shakespeare and Scott, 

 which had been read to him. He rode and hunted with his father 

 and sisters, and when a very small boy went to Epsom with his father 

 — a distance of nine miles — to see the Derby. 



At eight years of age George was sent to a preparatory school at 

 Reading ; four j^ears later he went to Wellington College, of which 

 E, W. Benson, subsequently Archbishop of Canterbury, was then 

 head master. At his father's death in 1869, George was sent to 

 Epsom College, where he had obtained a scholarship ; at the age of 

 seventeen he went to Wren, a Avell known coach, to prepare for the 

 Indian Civil Service ; for this he passed the first examination, but 

 failed in the second, partly from ill-health but partly because the 

 time which should have been devoted to the acquirement of native 

 languages having been spent largely in scientific work. At a later 

 period he joined Wren's tutorial staff, on which he remained until the 

 outbreak of the War. After this he w^as appointed to a temporary 

 post at the Imperial Institute in 1917 in connection with the Indian 



