336 Mtscellaneoufi. 



questions ; but I would note that the fact which constitutes the sub- 

 ject of this note is not so novel as might be supposed. Jean Bauhin, 

 in his ' Historia Plantarum ' (1651), expresses himself as foUows 

 with regard to this same plant, which he calls Gramen Parnassi : — 

 " Quinque radiatis staminibus, albis apicibus .... quibus totidem 

 interjecta alternatim staminum flavescentium mvscanola.'^ The 

 double meaning of this last word may perfectly well be interpreted 

 in favour of the fact which I now point out ; and the " flycatcher " 

 would thus have been recognized more than two centuries ago. 



M. Duval-Jouve, in connexion with these organs and with my 

 observations, has been kind enough to communicate to me the 

 manner in which he regards their morphological signification. With 

 the learned botanist of Montpellier the mnscariola would be organs 

 derived from those that we meet with at the base of the petals of 

 the Hellebores. If these glanduliferous twists be cleft longitu- 

 dinally, we get, by spreading out the unrolled twist, the surface 

 of a floral gland. To render the similitude more striking, it is neces- 

 sary only to suppose the gland which occupies the bottom of the 

 cone divided and transferred to the apex of each of the flbro-vascular 

 axes which, as I have ascertained, exist to the number of from 13 to 

 15 in the parenchyma of the organ. According to this mode of 

 contemplating the facts, the Pamassice would have to be placed close 

 to the lianunculacese, as has already been done ; but in accepting this 

 interpretation it would be necessary to ascribe what seems to me a 

 very wide part, not only to the transformation of the oi'gan, but 

 also to the physiological appropriation of its parts; therefore, from 

 the narrow point of view with which I have to do, I should be more 

 willing to follow present systematists in approximating the Pamas- 

 sice to the Saxifrageae and Droseraceas, which, as we know from 

 Darwin*, include numerous cases of weU-ascertained earnivority, 

 whilst nothing of the sort has hitherto been observed among the 

 Ranuneulacese. — Comixes Rendus, January 3, 1876, p. 99. 



<'■ Ornithological Errors in the 'Beliqidce Aquitanicce.'" 



To the Editors of the Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 



Gentlemen, — Professor Jones (Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 4, xvii. 

 pp. 263, 264) seems to charge me with unfairness in not imputing 

 blame to him as regards the ornithological errors in the ' Reliquiae 

 Aquitanicae.' If it will aff'ord him any satisfaction, allow me to 

 withdi'aw my expression so far as he is concerned, and impute to 

 him the blame of not cancelling the sheet containing those errors, 

 of which he was informed by me before it was issued to the public. 



I have the honour to be, Gentlemen, 

 Magdalene College, Cambridge, Your obedient Servant, 



March 3, 1876. Alfred Newton. 



* Insectivorous Plants, 1875. 



