17 



one of the lowest forms of the true mosses known to us, merely 

 consists of a mass of spores surrounded by a single cell wall, 

 which ruptures irregularly having no differentation into mouth 

 operculnm, columella, or spore-sac. It is however open to us to 

 regard these characters as degenerate. If on the other hand the 

 capsule or spoi'e -bearing generation is merely regarded as a new 

 part of an existing organism or homologous to the sexual moss 

 plant the diffulty of accounting for such an extensive differentia- 

 tion of spore-producing tissue is avoided, and it is eaaier to trace 

 a connection between the mosses and the ferns which certain 

 facts in the life history of the lowest family of ferns, the 

 HymenophyllacefB, seem to indicate. This question was made 

 the subject of an address to the botanical section of the British 

 Association by Dr. Scott last autumn, and may be regarded as 

 still sub judice. 



WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13th, 1897. 



AN EVENING FOR CONVERSATION AND 

 THE EXHIBITION OF SPECIMENS. 



WEDNESDAY, FEBKUAEY 10th. 



THE ORIGIN OF DOUBLE FLOWERS. 



BY 



Mr. E. H. fare, F.C.S. 



The Author commenced by describing the constituent parts 

 of normal flowers and their modes of arrangement in different 

 classes of plants, illustrating the extremes by means of the floral 

 diagrams of Ranunculaceae and Liliaceas respectively, drawn on the 

 blackboard. 



He then proceeded to demonstrate the modes in which various 

 double flowers were evolved from their single representatives by 

 means of a quantity of selected fresh and dried specimens, which 

 showed clearly the various stages in the transition. 



