1917-18.] BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH 289 



is as much as 2 mm. in diameter. From the centre of its 

 convex summit there arises abruptly, like an elongated 

 apiculus, a thin needle-like upper portion some 2 mm. long; 

 Avhich is attached by its sharp point to the connective of 

 the anther slightly below the middle. The anther is dis- 

 tinctly dorsifixed. This upper portion of the lilament is 

 pale-yellow coloured, in contrast with the dark-coloured, 

 brown or purple lower swollen portion. This lower portion 

 gives the impression of being a hollow sac. It is not really 

 a sac. Through the centre of it runs the vascular bundle, 

 and it is surrounded by a cellular tissue with large inter- 

 cellular spaces enclosed by some peripheral layers of more 

 compact cells. The large anther, some 7 mm. long swing- 

 ing on the top of the needle-like upper lilament, perched 

 on top of the fat lower filament, is most distinctive. It 

 is a strong character in support of Nomocharis as a genus, 

 for it is known nowhere else within this group of forms. 



Nevertheless, we are not without approaching forms. 

 They are to be found in the Forrestian plant No. 10,620 

 and the Wardian plant No. 801 previously mentioned. In 

 them the staminal filaments are swollen in a longer, lowei-, 

 dark-coloured portion, needle-like in an upper pale-coloured 

 portion, to which the anther is dorsifixed. But the inflation 

 of the lower portion is not nearly so great as in Nomocharis 

 — to not quite 1 mm. — and then this lower part does not 

 end in a convex broad top in the centre of which stands 

 the needle-like extension, but narrows into the subulate tip. 

 The areas from which these plants have come to us are not 

 yet fully explored botanicalh^ and these forms suggest that 

 other species more closely linking with Nomocharis in this 

 staminal character may yet be discovered. 



The dorsifixed anther of Nomocharis seems to be a liliod 

 character of little value for separating it from Fritillaria. 

 True basifixed anthers I know of in Fritillaria (Petilium) 

 imperialis, but in all the forms of Fritillaria I have cited 

 here the anthers are attached by the back of the connective 

 a short distance at least above their base and always to a 

 finely pointed tip of the filament. It is not merely a case 

 of intrusion of the filament between the prolonged bases of 

 the antherine lobes. Whether in nature the anthers are 

 really versatile, dried specimens do not suffice to determine. 



