i8gi.] 



Briefer Articles. 



235 



The reason for this I attribute to the attempt of the flowers to secure 

 pollination. The plant was kept in a room, and while the flowers 

 were few in number there was no chance for the transfer of pollen, as 

 was easily the case when they became more numerous and crowded. 

 The stamens appeared to wilt in about two days after their pollen had 

 been thrust out by the styles and had they, as was observed in later 

 cases, drawn the styles down into the tube with them, then the object 

 of their living would have been defeated. In two cases I transferred 

 pollen to the stigmas and no movement of the styles was noticed inde- 

 pendent of the stamens, but after a time both styles and stamens were 

 drawn down within the tube. My conclusion is that undoubtedly the 

 first cases failed of fertilization and the withdrawing of the styles and 

 the subsequent unfolding of the style branches was a plan to longer 

 present their stigmas for the reception of pollen.— Walter H. Evans, 



Herb 



e 



Co., Indianapolis. 



An abnormal water-pare. — The accompanying figure illustrates a 

 curious water-pore found by Mr. E. L. Hicks, a student in the botan- 

 ical laboratory of the University of Wisconsin, while examining these 



structures on the leaves of Tropaolum 

 majus. The four guard cells bound a 

 somewhat trapezoidal pore, A. The 

 whole apparatus reminds one strik- 

 ingly of a stoma of Marchantia poly- 

 morphs That it was a functionally 

 active pore was shown by the distinct 

 incrustation of the guard-cells with 

 mineral salts. — C. R. B. 



A new grass: Helical mtilthierv- 



osa _ Culms from a strong creeping 

 .. „ v rhizoma, about 3 ft. high, somewhat 



thickened at the base, erect, smooth, frequently geniculate below, the 

 lower nodes hairy: leaves four or five, narrow, rather rigid, 6 to 12 in. 

 long, becoming involute; lower sheaths much longer than the mter- 

 nodes and open above, upper sheaths shorter; ligule a prominent 

 ring of hairs: panicle erect, 6 inches long, the branches single, the 

 lower ones 3 inches long, flowering above the middle with 3 to 6 

 single, alternate, short-pedicelled, approximate spikelets, the upper 

 branches gradually shorter, above nearly sessile, the lower branches 

 spreading somewhat in flowering; rachis angular, scabrous, hairy in 

 the main axils: spikelets spindle-shaped or linear-lanceolate, 6 to 9 

 lines long, 8 to 12-flowered, slightly compressed, the flowers imbri- 

 cated, purple on the margins; empty glumes somewhat unequal, the 

 lower 2 lines long, 1- or faintly 3-nerved, the upper 7-nerved, both 





