Jan. 12, 1883.] 



• KNOWLEDGE • 



21 



groups succeed one another in the order here adopted ; for 

 the most primitive group is that in which all the florets 

 still remain as bells, like those of their non-composite 

 allies ; the next in course is that in which the outer florets 

 alone have become flattened ; and the last, or most deve- 

 loped, is that in which the flattening has extended to all 

 the florets alike. 



Now to which of these does whiter heliotrope belong 1 

 If you pick one of these heads in the wood here, you would 

 say at once to the tirst, obviously. And I need hardly add 

 that you would be wronj;, as one always is with first im- 

 pressions. This particular winter, heliotrope is a male 

 plant (I will explain what I mean by that by-and-by) ; and 

 it really has all its flowers tubular, just like those of the 

 thistles. There are no female flowers anywhere about, 

 however, for the whole colony is male alike ; if there were, 

 you would soon discover your mistake. The fact is, winter 

 heliotrope is a composite, which has passed through the 

 daisy stage, instead of never having reached it, and has 

 now got out again on the other side, looking very much 

 like a thistle that has never been through the course at 

 all. A glance at the minor family relationships of the 

 heliotrope will show you how it is that we know this. 



The sub-tribe of composites to which the winter helio- 

 trope and its allies belong is that of the Senecionida\ or 

 groundsels. Of these, our common yellow English rag- 

 wort, found everywhere by roadsides during the autumn 

 months, may be taken as a good typical specimen. It has 

 numerous tubular or bell-shaped central florets, surrounded 

 by several long, narrow spreading rays, like those of the 

 daisy, only bright golden instead of pinky white. Occasionallj', 

 however, even in the ragwort itself, these outer rays are 

 deflcient ; while in its close ally, the wood senecio, they 

 are always very small and rolled back inconspicuously, and 

 are very often wanting ; and in that still more degene- 

 rate type, the little groundsel, which we give to 

 canary birds, they have disappeared altogether. Xow, 

 the winter heliotrope has diverged from the central 

 T&gwoTt group in a somewhat diflerent direction. 

 The germs of Senecionidaj to which it belongs is 

 that of the coltsfoots, called in technical language Tun- 

 silaijo- All these coltsfoots, though they vary so much 

 in their flowers as to have been split up by systematic 

 botanists into two or more distinct genera, are yet almost 

 identical in their foliage, which sufiiciently proves the 

 reality of their close relationship. In all, the leaves are 

 large, broad, and deeply heartrshaped ; and they spring for 

 the most part direct from the perennial rootstock, instead 

 of growing on the same stem as the blossoms. The flower- 

 ing stems issue from separate buds on the creeping stock, 

 and rise as tall scapes, with no leaves except a few small 

 clasping scales. In these particulars the dillVrcnt species 

 so nearly resemble one another that it is easy to confuse 

 them together when they are not in flower ; but in blossom 

 they difler so greatly that it is only by their intermediate 

 gradation that you can trace their relationship to the central 

 ragwort type at all. 



The ordinary wild yellow coltsfoot {Ttissilago Farfara) 

 which grows so abundantly on railway embankments in 

 early spring, has tall, flufiy, flower-heads, remarkably 

 pretty, and consisting each of two kinds of florets. The 

 outer florets are very numerous, long, and e.xtrcmely 

 narrow ; and they are all strictly female, that is to say they 

 have a pistil, style, and ovary, but no stamens or pollen- 

 sacs. The inner florets are tubular, and they possess five 

 anthers each. Here we have the tirst beginning of such 

 a difierentiation of sexes as we find fully carried out in 

 the purple coltsfoots. These, however, including our 

 English butterbur and the winter heliotrope, have gone a 



great deal further in their development than their yellow 

 ally ; for here the two kinds of florets are almost entirely 

 separated on distinct plants. The male plants have a loose 

 bunch of small purple heads, and all their florets are tubular, 

 male and barren, with stamens alone and no pistil. To be sure, 

 they have in their centre what seems to be an ovary, but if 

 you cut open this false pistil with a sharp knife, and examine 

 it with a pocket lens, you will see that it contains no ovule, 

 and can, consequently, never ripen any seed. It remains 

 there merely as a speaking witness of what the plant used 

 once to be. In the female plants, on the other hand, the 

 heads are closer and thicker, and every head consists of 

 nothing but ^■ery narrow thread-like florets, each containing 

 a perfect pistil, with ovary, style, and seed, but without 

 any stamens. Thus, for purposes of safer cross-fertilisa 

 tion, the sexes have become almost entirely distinct, and 

 have taken almost universally to growing upon separate 

 plants. 



I say " almost," because the change has not yet been 

 quite fully carried out. See, here is one of the male 

 flower-heads on my winter heliotrope, which appears at 

 first just like the others ; but when you look closer, you 

 can see that there are five or six stray female florets at the 

 outside, as last representatives of the original ray. So on 

 the female plants, you will often find a single head with 

 three or four stray tubular male florets, lost in the midst 

 of a great flufi" of thread-like females. In short, while the 

 one set have Iieen reduced almost, but not quite altogether, 

 to nothing but disk-florets, the other set have been reduced 

 almost, but not quite altogether, to nothing but ray-florets. 

 It is usually so in nature. Though the clues are often all 

 but lost, a few generally remain just in suflicient number 

 to help us in reconstructing the lost pedigree ; and so the 

 yellow coltsfoot Vjridges over for us the distance between 

 the ragwort and the butterbur, while the abnormal or 

 bi-sexual flower-heads of the winter heliotrope bridge over 

 the distance to the perfectly unisexual individuals on the 

 thoroughly male or female plants. 



WAS 



RAMESES II. THE PHARAOH 

 OF THE OPPRESSION? 



By Amelia B. Edwards. 



XV.— TEL-EL- JIASKHUTA VERSUS THE "RAAMSES" OF 

 THE BIBLE (EXAJIIXATIOX OF THE EVIDENCE). 



I MUST now entreat those who have had patience to 

 accompany me thus far in a minute, and, perhaps, a 

 somewhat tedious, inquiry, to join with me in a final 

 examination of the evidence which connects Tel-el- 

 Maskhuta with the " Raamses " of the Bible, and both 

 with Barneses II. 



To begin with, Tel-el-Maskhuta is distinctly in the Land 

 of Goshen. However uncertain the boundaries of that 

 district may be, Wady Tumilat was as much a part of the 

 province as the city of Goshen itself. That is a point 

 upon which there is no room for doubt, and which has 

 never been doubted. Whether the town, fortress, Bekhrn, 

 or " treasure-city," the remains of which lie buried under 

 the mound, was, or was not, an entirely new place founded 

 by Eameses II., and containing a temple dedicated to 

 himself in the character of its local divinity, is the question 

 which now remains to be answered. We must first see 

 whether this Bekhen corresponds with the descriptions of 

 Pa-Rameses as derived from the monuments. 



1. J'a-Iiiuneses iros a fronlvr Jortrrss. The inscription 

 of Ptah-Tatunen at Aboo-Simbel describes it aa " a great 



