115 



buds arrive at development. Lastly, there are also trees and 

 shrubs whose buds contain as many leaves as the future 

 branch is to have members, as in Cytisus and JEsculus. 



MM. A. Henry and Cl. Marquart have given descriptions* 

 of various monstrosities of the carpel of Salix cinerea, which 

 may most easily be explained according to the view above 

 mentioned of the signification of the carpel. This and similar 

 deformities in the carpel of the willow have been frequently 

 observed and as often explained in different ways. The sepa- 

 ration of the carpellary leaves and their metamorphosis into 

 anthers, while the axile formation nevertheless produces the 

 ovules, would be the most essential fact resulting from the 

 descriptions given of the drawings. 



There is besides, the drawing of a catkin of the same kind 

 of willow, the carpels of which are intended to show the retro- 

 grade metamorphosis of the ovules into leaves. The cavity of 

 the carpel is filled with a number of longitudinally folded leaves, 

 variously serrated at the margin, as shown in the drawing : the 

 ovules are said to be missing, but on this account the occur- 

 rence of leaves permits of a different explanation, and we can- 

 not yet admit that the ovules are metamorphosed into leaves. 



M. Dutrochetf has also published some new observations 

 on abnormal formations of various parts of the plant, and com- 

 pared them with similar ones of other botanists, which is of 

 interest for the theory of the metamorphosis of plants ; how- 

 ever, I must refer the reader to the memoir itself, as the sepa- 

 rate subjects appear to me to be too special for this place. 

 We also find in it the observation, that we have no more rea- 

 son for admitting the petal or the stamen to be a metamor- 

 phosed leaf, than the reverse, that the common leaf is a 

 modification of form of the petal or the stamen. 



M. Dutrochet has made several additions in the new edition 

 of his memoir on the generation of plants J, which are remark- 

 able in several respects. It is well known that Grew described, 



* Ueber abnorrae Bildungen des Fruchtknotens der Salix cinerea, L. 

 Mit einer Tafel Abbildungen. Ersten Jahresbericht des botanischen Ver- 

 eines am Mittel- und Niederrhein, Bonn, 1837. 



f Observations sur les transformations ve'getales. Mem. pour servir a 

 1'Hist. Anat. et Pbysiol. des Vegetaux, ii. p. 163. 



J De la generation sexuelle des plantes et de 1'embryologie vegetale. 

 Mm. pour servir a 1'Hist. Anat. &c. ii. p. 115. 



i2 



