1868. | Botany and Vegetable Physiology. 381 
also quite different. It gives merely one absorption band very near 
the extreme red; whilst Phycocyan gives two, both much farther 
from the red end. In its general characters it is related to chloro- 
phyll, but is quite distinct from it. The wood also contains two 
yellow colours, which make it more green; and also a substance of 
a claret colour, which seems to make it somewhat dull. This claret 
colour is insoluble in water, but much more soluble in alcohol than 
the green-blue; and is quite different from any other substance 
which has come under my notice. On the whole, both these colours 
are very interesting, since they belong to classes of colouring matters 
which are so rare that I only know one or two other examples out 
of some hundreds which I have examined and classified.” 
Nature of “Leaves” of Sciadopitys—At p. 124 of the ‘ Report 
of Proceedings’ of the Botanical Congress in 1866, Professor Dickson 
pointed out that the limear leaf-like bodies in S. verticillata were 
homologous with branches, and analagous to the phylloid shoots in 
Ruscus, Phyllocladus, &c. His views have been confirmed by the 
observations of M. Carriere, published in the ‘Revue Horticole,’ who 
has seen them bearing buds, and also branched and whorled. 
Stamens of Cochliostema.—Dr. Masters has described in the 
‘Gardener's Chronicle’ the structure of the andrcecium in a species 
(C. Jacobinianwm, Koch and Linden) of this hitherto misunderstood 
genus of Commelynacez. On removing the leaves of the perianth, 
in front of the flower appear two lateral linear purple organs densely 
clothed with fringe-like hairs; these are considered staminodes, or 
abortive stamens. ‘The perfect stamens present a very unusual 
appearance. A single organ arises from the posterior part of the 
flower, and attached to its base behind is a dense tuft of yellow hairs. 
The organ consists below of a flat stalk, but above of two petal-like 
conyolute horns with long terminal points. This was formerly con- 
sidered a single stamen, but is now seen to be three combined. The 
anthers are entirely enclosed in the cavity of the organ, and are three 
in number ; two being vertical, attached by slender filaments to near 
the inner edge of the petal-like process; and the third horizontal, 
below the other two, its filament bent downwards: at the back of 
the organ, at a point corresponding to the attachment of this anther, 
is an oval disk surrounded by a few irregular processes. The anthers 
are twisted into a spiral, and dehisce by a line which follows all 
the curves. The theoretical nature of this andrcecium is considered 
by Dr. Masters to be nine stamens in three rows (or, if the stami- 
nodes be considered petals, six in two rows). The outer row is barren, 
consisting of the two lateral purple organs and the tuft of yellow 
hairs; of the stamens of the middle row, only the posterior two are 
developed, their anthers being the two vertical ones, and part of 
their filaments dilated into the petal-like horns; of the inner whorl 
only the posterior is developed as the horizontal anther. 
