ON POLL1N1FEROUS OVULES IN A ROSE. 321 
little, save in points of detail, to what has been before said; but I 
wish specially to allude to the discovery of pollen within the tissues of 
the ovule, in a species of Passiflora, as recorded by my friend Mr. 
S. J. Salter, in the Linnean 'Transactions,' vol. xxiv. p. 143. Much 
interested at the time with the singularity of the occurrence, and the 
inferences to be drawn from it, I searched diligently for other examples 
of a like nature, but without success, till the present summer, when, on 
examining -some flowers of Rosa arvensis, in which the stamens exhi- 
bited almost every conceivable gradation between their ordinary form 
and that of the carpels, I lighted upon some ovules which contained 
pollen, some in small quantities, others in greater abundance. 
Speaking generally, the most common state of things in these flowers 
was the occurrence on the throat of the calyx, iu the position ordinarily 
occupied by the stamens, and sometimes mingled with those organs, of 
twisted, ribbon-like filaments, bearing one or more pendulous, ana- 
tropous ovules about their centres and on their margins ; immediately 
above the ovules were the anther lobes, more or less perfectly developed, 
and surmounting these a long style, terminating in a fringed, funnel- 
shaped stigma. Sometimes the ovules were perfect, at other times the 
nucleus protruded through the foramen, while in a third set of ovules 
the nucleus was included within the tegument, the ovules having in all 
respects their natural external conformation, but containing not only 
pollen- grains, but also a layer of those peculiar spheroidal cells, contain- 
ing a fibrous deposit, which are among the normal constituents of the 
anther. In one case, where the coat of the ovule was imperfect, and thus 
allowed the nucleus to protrude, it was evident that the pollen was 
contained within the central mass of the ovule. In this instance I failed 
to see any of the fibrous cells, these I only found in cases where the coat 
of the ovule was perfect ; and hence I am led to conclude, though 1 am 
far from being positive on this head, that the fibrous cells were part 
of the coat of the ovule, while the pollen was formed within the nucleus. 
I should also add that in no case did I find any trace of embryo sac 
within the ovule. 
It would be a matter of the highest interest to trace the develop, 
^ent of such structures as these ; this was not practicable in this case, 
h'oin the limited number of polliniferous ovules, and the fact that those 
that were present were all in about the same stage of development. 
The examination of these singular irregularities almost necessarily leads 
