i Sa Braun, ‘ Rejuvenescence, Henfrey 
INFLAMMABILITY OF FLOWERS OF DICTAMNUS ALBUS. 345 
72. Nature not unfrequently affords us instances in which, by a 
retrogressive movement, the style and stigmas are reconverted into 
petals. It is, for example, by such a transformation that Ranunculus 
Asiaticus becomes double, the anthers being often found unchanged 
immediately beneath the corolla. Some other remarkable instances 
will be mentioned by-and-by.* 
73. We must here repeat the observations before asserted, that the 
style and stamens are to be referred to the same period of growth, and 
that they hereby afford a fresh illustration of the argument by which 
gi endeavoured to prove a process of alternate expansion and contrac- 
tion. From the seed to the topmost stem-leaf we observed the work of 
expansion going forward ; we next saw the calyx produced by means of 
contraction, the petals by expansion, and again the stamens and pistils 
by contraction. Presently we shall have to observe the highest degree 
of expansion in the fruit, and the utmost concentration in the seed. In 
these six steps unwearied nature completes her never-ending work of 
reproduction, by means of the male and female organs. t 
INFLAMMABILITY OF THE FLOWERS OF DICTAMNUS 
ALBUS. 
When the daughter of Linneus one evening approached the flowers 
of Dietamnus albus with a light, a little flame was kindled without in 
any way injuring them. The experiment was afterwards frequently 
repeated, but it never succeeded; and whilst some scientific men re- 
garded the whole as a faulty observation or simply a delusion, others 
endeavoured to explain it by various hypotheses. One of them espe- 
cially which tried to account for the phenomenon by assuming that the 
Plant developed hydrogen, found much favour. At present, when this 
_ hypothesis has become untenable, the inflammability of the plant is men- 
ted for by the presence of 
tioned more as a ewriosum, and accoun 
ing a garden in 
étheric oil in the flowers. Being in the habit of visit 
ae Linn., Prolepsis, § ix., mentions some flowers of Carduus heterophyllus and 
C. talaricus in which * the style had. grown into two green leaflets, the calyx and 
Corolla were also leaf-like in these flowers." — ; 
j 's translation for Ray Society, 1853, 
