MORPHOLOGY OF PHILYDRUM LANUGINOSUM. 105 
common as Groundsel in the cultivated ground and in the hedge-banks 
between Kew and East Sheen. The plant was introduced from Peru 
into Kew Gardens in 1796, from seed sent by Menzies, as recorded 
in the * Kew Garden Catalogue,” and further confirmed by specimens in 
the herbarium of the British Museum, which were received from the 
Gardens in that year. I do not find it mentioned in any of the French 
Floras that I have at hand; but Koch includes it in his ‘ Synopsis ’ 
(ed. 3, p. 309), stating that it is now very abundant in the cultivated 
fields of Northern Germany; Reichenbach figures it in his * Icones 
Flore Germaniese? (xvi. t. 92) ; and Billot has distributed it in his va- 
luable ‘Flora Gallice et Germanis " (nos. 388 and 1900), from sandy 
cultivated fields and waste places near Berlin. 
J. E. Gray. 
ON THE MORPHOLOGY AND ANATOMY OF 
PHILYDRUM LANUGINOSUM, Br. 
The structure of the flower in this singular plant seems to be but 
imperfectly understood. Lindley (Veg. King. p. 186) says, “ it is un- 
certain what the exact analogy of its petaloid divisions may be, but 
they appear to belong to the corolla.” Robert Brown, Endlicher, and 
others, evade the difficulty, by speaking of the two yellow segments in- 
tervening between the bract and the fertile stamen, as forming a peri- 
gonium diphyllum. The examination of certain Chinese and Australian 
ens grown in the Oxford Bo- 
specimens, as well as of numerous specim 
tanic Garden, and kindly communicated to me by Mr. Baxter, lead me 
to consider the so-called perigonium as a calyx, the corolla not being 
developed, and for the following reasons. The lower or anterior seg- 
ment, next to the bract, is evidently a single foliar organ, with a me- 
dian and other nerves; the upper segment, on the other hand, has 
two strongly-marked lateral nerves, while its apex is not unfrequently 
emarginate or slightly cleft. Opposite to the lower segment, is the 
single fertile stamen, the two petaloid stamen-substitutes being placed 
opposite the two halves of the upper segments. Within the sta- 
minal whorl is the three-celled ovary, of which one cell is anterior or 
opposite to the fertile stamen, while the two others are lateral or pos- 
