LINNEAN SOCIETY OP 1,0^1)0^. 79 



British Association at Leeds in September, 1858, on p. 266 of 

 the General Report, which was no doubt not effectively published 

 till the following year, when he might have corrected an un- 

 intended error. 



My thauks are due to Dr. Caiman for his having entrusted me 

 with the evidence that Bate's Vanntompsoma was published at 

 some time in the third quarter of 1858. Nevertheless we have 

 Bate's own clear statement that the genus was described by him 

 in the ' Natural History Review.' He could just as well have 

 referred to the Journal, if that had priority, and it would have 

 given him the best possible opportunity of vindicating his mode 

 of spelling the generic name against Kinahan's. Kiuahan was on 

 terms of intimacy with Spence Bate, as letters in my possession 

 show. He was also interested in the reputation of Vaughan 

 Thompson. It may well be that he thought his friend Bate was 

 taking too much of a liberty with the deceased author in mis- 

 spelling both his christian and his surname. To remedy this, we 

 may suppose, he himself took the liberty of making a change in 

 the still unpublished name of Bate's genus, against which I cannot 

 find that Spence Bate ever uttered or printed a word of 

 expostulation. 



Whatever may be the result of the particular controversy, time 

 will not have been wasted over it, if it helps to bring about a more 

 general adoption of the practice in scientific literature of pi*inting 

 on each separate publication the exact date of issue. 



ly. 



Phyllody in Trifolium. By May Rathbone, P.L.S. 

 [Eead 21st March, 1912.] 



A specimen of Trifolium repens showing phyllody of the carpels, 

 was gathered in a hayfield, Cheshii'e, in the summer of 1912. 



The flowers are of two forms, both occurring on the same plant, 

 but in different heads. In one form in place of the carpel the axis 

 of the flower is prolonged into a petiole with well-developed 

 stipules and bearing only one leaflet. The other parts of the 

 flower are normal, except that the calyx teeth are, I think, a little 

 longer and broader than usual. 



The other form bears a trifoliolate leaf instead of the carpel 

 and, in the flower of this type which was dissected, no stipules 

 were found. The stamens, corolla, and calyx were normal. 



The season of 1912 was a particularly dry one, and the plant 

 showed no signs of disease or injury. 



References. 



Dr. Masters, " Vegetable Teratology," pp. 276 & 279, 1869. 

 M. Germain de Saint-Pierre, Bull. Soc. Bot. France, 1856, 

 vol. iii. p. 477. 



Dr. Peuzig, " Pflanzen-Teratologie," vol. i. 1890. 



