Miscellaneous. 423 



have not been able to discover any intermediate gradations between 

 them. 



The more common pale states of the species have a large flower, 

 usually consisting of six ovate, whitish petals, the three outer ones 

 having a more or less deep-purple tinge on the outer surface. The 

 purple-flowered variety or race has a rather smaller flower, generally 

 of eight (rarely of six) narrow ovate petals, which are all of a uniform 

 more or less deep-purple colour. The leaves of this variety are 

 mostly of a darker hue. 



I do not find the variety noticed in Hooker, Duby, or any other 

 work that I have at hand. 



On the Raphides q/" Lemnacese. By George Gulliver, F.R.S. 



1 . Lemna minor. Fronds abounding in bundles of acicular crystals 

 and starch-granules. The crystals are longer than the cells of the 

 frond. 



2. L. trisulca. Bundles of the same raphides plentiful in the 

 frond, and often clearly distinguishable within its cells. 



3. L. polyrrhiza. Raphides scanty. Pigment-cells smooth and 

 highly refracting 



4. L. gibba. Raphides scanty. 



The above extract from my notes of July 1859 shows that these 

 raphides occur in all the British species of Lemna, and that they and 

 starch are especially abundant in the most common one. 



The valuable observations of Prof. Quekett having shown that in 

 some other plants these raphides are phosphate of lime. Dr. Davy 

 kindly examined a few of them for me in Epilobium montanum, and 

 came to the same conclusion as to their composition. All the spe- 

 cies of Epilobium that I have examined abound more or less in these 

 raphides. 



As to the common and prolific Duckweed, it appears to be a very 

 laboratory of starch and phosphate of lime ; so that it is now ob- 

 vious how useful even this abject and despised plant may be, both as 

 a manure and as food for aquatic animals, especially when they are 

 young and the osseous system growing. 



It may be added, for the information of London botanists, that all 

 the British Lemnacese are common about Walthamstow ; and that 

 Lemna polyrrhiza may be distinguished at once simply by its singu- 

 larly sharp-pointed root- sheath, the same part in the other species 

 being much more blunt and rounded. 



On the Habits and Larva of Mormolyce. 

 Mr. John Bowring, in a letter from Penang, observes, "Among 

 other good things I fell in with was the Mormolyce phyllodes, of which 

 I have also the pupa, and two specimens of what I have good reason 

 to suppose is its larva, found in the cavities of the woody fungus on 

 which the perfect insects live. These last are very active, and, 

 notwithstanding their large size, are not very readily to be found, 

 although their peculiar scent betrays their presence. They lie so 

 close to the fungus, that, in feeling the under side of it, the hand is 



