1887 WORK AT THE GENTIANS AGAIN 33 



the deliverance from so painful a malady as lieart-disease 

 is hardly to be lamented in one sense ; but these increasing 

 gaps in one's intimate circle are very saddening, and we 

 feel for Lady Hooker and you. My wife has been 

 greatly depressed by hearing of Mrs. Carpenter's fatal 

 disorder. One cannot go away for a few weeks without 

 finding somebody gone on one's retiirn. 



I got no good at the Maderaner Thai, so we migrated 

 to our old quarters at AroUa, and there I picked up in 

 no time, and in a fortnight could walk as well as ever. 

 So if there are any adhesions they are pretty well 

 stretched by this time. 



I have been at the Gentians again, and worked out 

 the development of the flower in G. purpurea and G. 

 campestris. The results are very pretty. They both 

 start from a thalamifloral condition, then become coroUi- 

 floral, G. purpurea at first resembling G. lutea and G. 

 campestris, an Ophelia, and then specialise to the 

 Ptychantha and Stephanantha forms respectively. 



In G. campestris there is another very curious thing. 

 The anthers are at first introrse, but just before the bud 

 opens they assume this position [sketch] and then turn 

 right over and become extrorse. In G. purpurea this 

 does not happen, but the anthers are made to open 

 outwards by their union on the inner side of the slits 

 of dehiscence. 



There are several other curious bits of morphology 

 have turned up, but I reserve them for our meeting. 



Beyond pottering away at my Gentians and doing 

 a little with that extraordinary Cynanchum I have been 

 splendidly idle. After three weeks of the ascetic life of 

 Arolla, we came here to acclimatise ourselves to lower 

 levels and to fatten up. I go straight through the table 

 d'hote at each meal, and know not indigestion. 



My wife has fared not so well, but she is all right again 

 now. We go home by easy stages, and expect to be 

 in ilarlborough Place on Tuesday. 



VOL. Ill D 



