86 REPORT—1848. 
Another morphological question: existed, and that was as to whether an inferior 
ovary should be regarded as the result of the growth of the carpellary leaf or of the 
portion of the stem on which it was seated. Some gooseberries were exhibited in 
which bracts were growing from the surface of the berry, and which might be re- 
garded as indicative rather of the axial than the foliar character of the fruit. 
The proximate cause of these abnormal forms seems to be an over-nutrition of the 
part, which is produced either by culture or the attacks of parasitic fungi or insects. 
In these cases the formative energy of the plant seemed not able to resist the tendency 
to produce its tissues in the simplest form, that of the leaf. 
On a Peculiarity in the Protococcus nivalis. By MAtTrHew Moceripce. 
On the 12th of August 1845, near Delvin Head, Gower, at a place where water oozing 
out of the old red sandstone stagnates upon freshwater mud, I gathered Protococcus 
nivalis, but was prevented from observing it satisfactorily under the microscope. 
Since that period [ have found it each year on the same spot ; and though the same 
conditions apparently obtain in numerous places in the immediate vicinity, the ha- 
bitat appears to be confined to one precise spot. 
In 1846 I found theProtococcus nivalis in pools in the rocky bed of the river Pyrddyn 
(about 40 miles from the former station), a little above and below the Lady’s Fall. 
From 1845 to the present time I have made each year many observations (chiefly 
with the 4 inch) on this plant. The peculiarity to which I would draw attention is 
the occasional presence and office of a tube, in length sometimes two-thirds the dia- 
meter ofthe globule. This I have myself repeatedly seen, and on one occasion showed 
it to my excellent friend Dr. Hooker. 
Agardt has figured the Protococcus Grevillit with a somewhat similar appendage ; 
but he regards it as being a pedicle or means of attachment ; and the difference be- 
tween this species and the nivalis has not been apparent to me, as in observations on 
the same specimens carried on, sometimes for eight weeks, both forms occurred ; and 
I believe the species to be identical, as indeed would appear by Mr. Hassall's book. 
In the cases above referred to, the passage of the granules from the globule through 
the tube appeared very decided; the granular mass in the interior being lessened— 
the tube containing several granules, and in the instance which I exhibited to Dr. 
Hooker, one granule being seen near the mouth of the tube, having to all appearance 
. Just escaped and being free in the water. 
I may add, that on no occasion has any attachment of this tube at its extremity 
been perceptible to me ; and would suggest that this is one—I do not say the only— 
mode in which the granules escape from the parent cell. 
On the Colour Stripes of a Rose (Rosa sempervirens), single. 
By Joun Puituirs, F.R.S., F.GS. 
After some observations on the colour in the cells of plants, and the distribution of 
the tints according to structure, the author gave the following statement :-— 
The large firm petals of this beautiful single rose, when fully expanded and grown 
in an open aspect, are white, with a delicate tint of yellow toward the base, and, in 
very bright hot weather, an almost indiscernible blush of red. But there are on the 
flower two bands of very full clear red, which commonly appear on one petal only, 
and then generally converge and unite at an obtuse angle at or near the middle of the 
free edge of the petal. These bands are visible on the outside of the flower only, for 
the red dye does not penetrate to the interior. This is the usual appearance, but it 
sometimes happens that, while two colour stripes appear on one petal, and are con- 
vergent upon it, they do not meet at a point. When this happens, some portions of 
red appear on one or more of the other petals of the flower, giving a slightly varie- 
gated aspect to the whole. There are cases also of one stripe being on one petal, 
and the other on parts of two others. 
Since it appears clearly from the above examples of variation in the place of the 
colour stripes, that they are independent of any structural peculiarity of the petals of 
the flower, it appeared to me that their form and distribution must be dependent on 
some other circumstance in the organization of the flower or the arrangement of its 
envelopes. Watching, therefore, the unfolding of the flower from its early bud, I 
