314 



that the organs of reproduction, with their appendages, are but metamorphosed leaves. 

 * * The points in which this plant departed from its normal condition, appear 

 to be these: — The corolla, instead of being petaloid, irregular, five-cleft and brightly 

 coloured, was leafy, regular, in five deep segments, of a green colour. The stamens, 

 which should have been didynamous, were here absent. The ovarium, from being 

 two-celled, became five-celled ; the stigma five-cleft, instead of bifid ; and the style 

 hollow, instead of being solid. 



" The quinary condition of the ovarium, and the alternation of its carpels with the 

 divisions of the corolla, is a state which would be expected to follow any alteration in 

 the number of its cells, with an accompanying tendency to assume regularity in its de- 

 velopment ; as the quinary arrangement is that which prevails in dicotyledons. The 

 supernumerary carpellary leaves, of which the ovarium is composed, are obviously those 

 which, under the normal condition of the plant, would have gone to the formation of 

 stamens. That they are developed from the next whorl of leaves to the corolla is 

 plain, from their alternating with its divisions. Now, in the normal condition, the 

 stamens would be so situated ; one leaf, however, in the whorl is altogether abortive, 

 — forming neither a stamen nor a carpel ; for the carpellary development of this would 

 produce a six-celled ovarium. The abortion of stamens in the natural family Scro- 

 phularineae (to which this plant belongs) is by no means unfrequent." — p. 27. 



This case of metamorphosis is remarkable as presenting an instance 

 of changes proceeding in opposite directions in the same flower ; — 

 1. from centre to circumference, the bright-coloured irregular corolla 

 having been converted into five equal, green, leafy segments, clothed 

 with glandular hairs, like the calyx : 2. from the circumference to the 

 centre, the stamina taking the form of carpellary leaves. The former 

 of these changes is considered by the author to disprove an opinion 

 expressed by Dr. Lindley, that transformations of the reproductive 

 organs " always take place in the order of development, or from cir- 

 cumference to centre ; that is to say, that the calyx is transformed 

 into petals, the petals into stamens, &c., but that the converse does 

 not occur r 



IV. On the British Species of Fumaria. By Charles C. Babington, M.A. 



F.L.S., F.G.S., &c. 



Mr. Babington, in a paper read before the Society on the 12th of 

 May last, has entered more fully into the specific distinctions of Fu- 

 maria parviflora and other allied species of the genus, (Phytol. 239) ; 

 we therefore think it better to defer our analysis of the present paper 

 until the publication of the second in the Transactions. 



V. On Systematic .Arrangement in the Formation of Kaiural-History Collec- 



tions. By William Brand, C.S., F.B.S. 



Believing that nothing has been created without an object, the 



