16-t BOTANICAL NEWS. 
racy tliat might perhaps have been more intelligible, had the author laid 
aside a phraseology derived from certain theories on the structure of 
the tioral organs, which doubtless were of great service wlien De Can- 
dolle first advocated them in the beginning of this century, but seem 
now to be antiquated. Thus he speaks not only of bracteolae united 
together, of buds united to their bracts, but of leaves united to 
tlie stem from which they are borne, and of different branches united 
together, etc. As regards the flower, properly speaking, M. Parlatore 
inclines to consider it in the same light as Baillon and others, that 
is, as formed of a dicarpellous ovary, with an ovulura reduced to its 
nucellus, — thus rejecting E. Brown's notion of the naked ovulum (a no- 
tion which, by the bye, was first brought forward by the riorentine 
botanist, Ottaviano Targioni, as early as 1809, in an almost forgotten 
paper on Coniferm^ published in the * Annali del Museo di Fircnze'). 
Although there is nothing absolutely new in the views entertained 
by M. Parlatore on the structure of the cone of Coyiiferce^ yet the many 
proofs he brings forward in their support show his extensive knowledge 
of the Order, and will be serviceable to botanists, whatever may be the 
ultimate opinion they may adopt. What appears to be entirely new in 
the present paper is the view taken of the structure of the male flowers, 
botanists having hitherto agreed in considering each scale of the cat- 
kins as a simple stamen, bearing numerous anthers, while M. Parlatore 
considers the scales bracts, bearing in their axil several stamina united 
to the bract, and borne on its upper surface or else shifted to its under 
surface. 
BOTANICAL NEWS. 
The Committee appointed bj the Horticultural Society to adjudicate on the 
botanical collections sent in for competition in reference to the Society's offer 
last year (see 'Journal of Botany,' VoL II, pp, 96, 191), has awarded a silver 
medal to twenty-six competitors for the best collection from their respectiye coun- 
ties, a bronze medal to eleyen competitors for the second and third best collec- 
tion, and a gold medal to Dr. St. Brody, of Cheltenham, Mr. Joshua Clarke, of 
SaHVon Walden, and Miss Lydia E. Barker, of Accrington, for the best of the 
collections out of all the several county herbariums, Mr, Joshua Clarke also 
received a gold medal for a new species of plant found growing in the United 
Xmgdom {Frucastrum imdorum) ; and Mr. W. G. Smith an extra gold medal 
