SPICILEGIA FLORAE SINENSIS. 7 



lanceolate teeth. The pappus is plumose, in many rows, and 

 surrounds the ordinary ligulate corolla, with its usual contents. 



In the flowers with which I was favoured by Mr. Edgeworth the 

 condition of things was very different. The peduncles were 

 covered nearly throughout their length with minute linear bracts 

 passing insensibly into the involucre. The involucral bracts sur- 

 rounded tufts of strap-shaped, oblong, membranous, ciliated scales. 

 Possibly these represented the pappus of an ordinary flower. 

 Within them the corolla was present in the form of a variable 

 number of yellow thread-like processes, quite distinct one from 

 the other. No trace of stamens was visible in any of the flowers 

 that I examined. The ovary, however, was wholly superior, with 

 a single cavity and a single style terminating in a variable 

 number (2-5) of stigmatic branches. The ovule was of the ordi- 

 nary character and, in some cases, was associated with a second. 



It is admitted on all hands that there is a certain amount of 

 antagonism between the processes of nutrition and growth and that 

 of reproduction ; the cu-cumstances that favour the one are not so 

 propitious to the others. Again, it is not contested that the differen- 

 tiation fi-om the ordinary leaf-type is considerably greater in the 

 case of the stamens than it is in the case of the corolla or pistil. 

 It would seem, therefore, that in the Leontodon before us, the 

 vegetative tendency predominated over the reproductive. The 

 bracts w^ere increased in number, the pappus was no longer a mere 

 series of threads, but represented by broad scales, the corolla was 

 arrested in its development, the stamens were entirely suppressed, 

 while the carpels w^ere well and even inordinately developed. The 

 arrest of vegetative growth and the subsequent differentiation 

 were therefore considerably less marked than usual. 



Although malformations are not uncommon in Composita), 

 and the literature relating to them is extensive, yet I do not 

 remember to have met with a case like the above, nor with the 

 record of such a one. 



Description of Tab. 200, b. — 1. Head of flowers (nat. sizf). 2. One of the 

 monstrous flowers (enlarged). 8. Ovary (much magnified). 



SPICILEGIA FLOKiE SINENSIS : DIAGNOSES OF NEW, 

 AND HABITATS OF RARE OR HITHERTO UNRE- 

 CORDED CHINESE PLANTS. 

 By H. F. Hance, Ph.D., Menib. Acad. Nat. Cur., &c., &c. 



IV. 



1. Ranunculus {Uccatonid) ^Moellendorffh, .s;^ nov. Radicc 

 simpUciter et crasse fibrosa, caule erecto tistuloso sulcato-striato 

 glabro pedaU et ultra, foliis radicalibus louge caulini.s.pie brcvitcr 

 petiolatis palmato-tripartitis laciniis trifidis acuminatis mciso- 



