582 



competent to treat on it than myself. — Joseph Sldehotham ; Manches- 

 ter, March Q, 1843. 



286. Note on Vegetable Morphology. I cannot see how the luxu- 

 riant growth of a stamen, causing it to produce a petaloid expansion 

 at its upper extremity, in addition to those parts necessary for its pe- 

 culiar functions, can be regarded as a proof of a descending metamor- 

 phosis, (Phytol. 523) ; by which I understand a dwindling away as it 

 were of the vital energy of the plant, preventing the development of 

 the elementary structures into the highest forms of which they are ca- 

 pable. This theory of a descending metamorphosis appears to me to 

 be unphilosophical in the extreme, for surely, if we can trace the same 

 type through a series of organs, the simplest and first developed of 

 which can, if necessary, perform the collective functions of the whole, 

 we cannot hesitate to take this simplest form as primary. I consider 

 that the monstrosities we see in Dahlias &c. are caused, immediately, 

 by an excess of nutriment afforded to the plant, which necessitates a 

 great development of the organs of digestion and respiration, viz., the 

 leaves : this, of course, diminishing the power of the plant to perfect 

 its floral organs, and thus causing what may be termed an arrest of 

 development, whereby stamens remain petals, &c. This does not ex- 

 plain the fact mentioned by Mr. Bladon; but if the anther was perfect, 

 which he says it appeared to be, there is nothing very extraordinary in 

 the production of a small petaloid expansion from the stamen, arising 

 from a redundancy of vital action, when we consider how closely the 

 two parts in question are allied. — Arthur Henfrey, M. Mic. Soc, Cu- 

 rator to the Bot. Soc. Lond. ; March 8, 1843. 



287. Note on the " Daill llosg y Tcin.^'' In answer to Mr. Lees' 

 enquiry respecting the above plant (Phytol. 521), I have enclosed a 

 few leaves and a young plant of the species known by that name in 

 this part of Gwent,* and applied to the same purposes. As I have 

 never examined the inflorescence of this plant I cannot give its name, 

 but it is evidently monocotyledonous, and not a fern. In the summer 

 the leaves are considerably larger, some of them being an inch or an 

 inch and a quarter in breadth. They never rise above the water, but 

 at that season lie incumbent on the surface. At the present time 

 those with the longest stems lie horizontally, about half an inch be- 

 low the surface, while the shorter-stemmed ones are as nearly upright 

 as those of the generality of plants. Whether the circumstance of 

 their sinking below the surface is owing to the late frosts or not, I am 



* Gwent, the northern and western districts of Monmouthshire, 



