AN INNOVATION IN NOMENCLATURE. 81 
of these barren stamens by an examination of the plant now under 
consideration. In the fully expanded flower, the inner surface of the 
upper angle or point of each petal is about on a level with the stigma 
and with the tip of the barren stamen, the outer flat surface of which 
latter, as well as the adjacent portion of the petal, are often dusted 
over with pollen, the true stamens nevertheless being at a considerable 
distance beneath these organs. In less fully developed flowers the 
barren stamens may be seen curving downwards and outwards, so as 
to come in contact with the shorter fertile stamens, whose anthers open 
outwardly, and thus allow their contents to adhere to the barren sta- 
mens. These latter, provided with their freight of pollen, uncoil them- 
selves, assume more or less of an erect position, and thus bring their 
points on a level with the stigma, whose curling lobes twist round 
them and receive the pollen from them. The use, then, of the long 
staminodes seems to be to convey pollen from the short fertile stamens 
to the stigma, which, but for their intervention, could not be influenced 
by it. The presence of pollen on the upper and inner corner of the 
petals is readily explained by the fact that, owing to their position and 
peculiar form, they all come in contact with the ends of the stami- 
nodes and the stigmas, and hence they too get dusted with pollen. 
These arrangements would therefore seem to favour self-fertilization, 
and they show how an organ spoken of sometimes somewhat con- 
temptuously, as barren, rudimentary, imperfect, or the like, may yet 
Play an important part both in the architectural plan of the flower, and 
m its life history. 
AN INNOv 
IN NOMENCLATURE IN THE RE- 
CENTLY-ISSUED VOLUME OF THE 'PRODROMUS.' 
[Of so much importance do we consider the innovation introduced 
in D r . Muller's "Monograph of the EupJiorbiacea," in De Candolle's 
rodromus,' which we strongly condemned some months ago, that we 
reprint the following article from « Silliman's Journal,' January, 1867, 
v Professor Asa Gray, in which he clearly and strongly shows the 
endle SS confusion which would follow the adoption of this practice.— 
Take, f or example, the genus Ceyhalocroton, established by Hoch- 
V0L - v - [march 1, 1867.] G 
