1841.] Linnean Society. 119 



leaves nearest the centre being imperfectly changed into stamina, 

 and surrounded by many of petaloid aspect, while the outer leaves 

 differ from the ordinary appearance only in having a little colour ; 

 the organs are not arranged in circles, and one leaf only, and that 

 among the most remote from the centre, assumes the form of a pi- 

 stillum. The second transformation described occurs in a specimen 

 of Gentiana campestris, in w^hich all the parts of the flower are con- 

 verted into leaves, which are somewhat petaloid and crowded into a 

 rose-like tuft : this kind of transformation is similar to that described 

 and figured by M, De CandoUe in Trifolium repens. 



The first case of increased or diminished development noticed by 

 Mr. Hincks affects a specimen of Anagallis arvensis, resembling one 

 described by M. Moquin-Tandon as found by M. Gay, in which an 

 increased development of the exterior circle is accompanied by dimi- 

 nution in the interior ones : the effect produced is stated to be very 

 unequal in different flowers, but the more the calyx is enlarged, the 

 more the interior circles are contracted. The second case is the well- 

 known wheat-ear carnation, Dianthus Caryophyllus imhricatus, L. 

 which is noticed as probably affording the best example of the mon- 

 strous multiplication of a particular circle. A third case occurs in 

 a capitulum of Matricaria^ in which the bractese, consisting under 

 ordinary circumstances of paleaceous scales, are enlarged into full- 

 sized leaves, completely deforming the flower : the rose-ribwort is 

 noticed as a phsenomenon of the same kind. Fourthly, Mr. Hincks 

 mentions a monstrous variety or highly developed form of Convallaria 

 multiflora, cultivated at Kew, which he presumes to be the var. 

 bracteata of De Candolle and Duby : in it the number of flowers 

 usually reaches five or six, and each of them proceeds from the 

 axilla of a small leaf on the pedicel. And lastly, the author notices 

 under this head a case of abortion or atrophy affecting the leaf of 

 a fern cultivated by Messrs. RoUeston, by which in one instance the 

 whole side of a frond, and in another the secondary veins with the 

 parenchyma at both sides are entirely suppressed ; a phsenomenon 

 which he has also observed in Scolopendrium officinale. 



Read also the commencement of a paper " On the Influence of 

 the Dew-point on the Temperature of Plants," by D. P. Gardner, 

 M.D., of Hampden Sidney College, Virginia, communicated by the 

 Secretary. 



