TrannaclioHS. 139 



markings frequented the vicinity of Gatehouse last summer. I 

 myself saw three specimens all difierently marked, and also a pure 

 white starling without the slightest trace of a single dark feather. 

 A pair of squirrels were brought to me during the winter, one of 

 them having a fine cream-coloured tail. The lady who brought 

 them quaintly remarked, " Here's qua wee ferrets tat be stuffed.'' 

 I looked at the " qua wee ferrets," and asked her when she would 

 like them. " Oh, wcel," she said, " Im in uae great hurry ; the 

 night '11 dae fine." 



4. Caryophylls. 

 By Mr George F. Scott-Elliot, M.A., F.L.S. 



If one studies the structure of any particular order, and follows 

 the different modifications found in its various species, it is im- 

 portant to know where to begin. Some would commence with 

 the most highly modified forms, such, for instance, as Lychnis and 

 Silene in this particular order, and would then proceed downwards 

 to the most degraded types, such as Sagina. Others might 

 follow exactly the reverse order, beginning with the degraded 

 types and ending with the highest, or what we call the highest. 

 Both these methods are, however, apt to lead one off the track in 

 explaining the origin of any peculiar specific adaptation. 

 Lychnis JtoscucuUi is a very highly developed bee-flower, while 

 Sagina is a degraded type of flower apparently adapted to ants 

 and the lowest kinils of diptera ; neither is, in any sense of the 

 term, an ancestor of the other. Such an ancestor should rather 

 be sought for in the middle of the oi'dei", and probably some form 

 like Slellaria or Cerastium can be regarded with the most 

 probability as nearest in structure to the original Caryophyll 

 •ancestor, from which Lychnis has risen and Sagina fallen. Be- 

 ginning, therefore, in the middle one may take Stellaria uliginosa 

 as a fairly good instance of a generalised Caryophyll, and I will 

 first point out the main features of its adaptation to insect 

 visitors, and then try and show the different departures iu other 

 forms. 



One finds in Stellaria uliginosa ten stamens, of which the five 

 outer, which are opposite the sepals, become ripe, and shed their 



