Miscellaneoiis, 221 



ing between them enabling the stigma to be seen. Of the stamina 

 of a single flower, some have the filaments slender and the anthers 

 dehiscent ; these are more or less fertile ; the others with shorter 

 filaments, and with the anthers imperfectly dehiscent, are, of course, 

 sterile. The pistil is constructed as usual. Consequently the pollen 

 of the few fertile anthers, or that of neighbouring flowers, causes a 

 few of the ovaries to develope into fruits. Artificial fecundation by 

 means of the pollen of other flowers of the vine greatly increases the 

 proportion of these fertile fruits in the coulards, 



A third deviation from the normal type is met with in the flowers. 

 This is the case of double flowers, by the transformation of the or- 

 dinary into more or less petaloid stamina, of the five nectariferous 

 glands into five staminodes either free, or united into a tube, and, 

 lastly, of the ovary into a bundle of little, imperfect leaves, forming 

 a sort of bud in the centre of the flower, and each of which, repre- 

 senting a carpellary leaf with or without rudiments of ovules, may 

 be ovuliferous upon its margins, or at once upon its inner, stigmatic 

 and polliniferous surfaces, for a variable portion of its apex. This 

 curious monstrosity, of which one of us intends publishing the details 

 in the * Annales des Sciences Naturelles,' possesses peculiar interest 

 in a botanical point of view ; in fact it recalls the normal state of the 

 genus Leea, just as the avalidouire abnormal type does the normal 

 flowers of Cissus. 



After the above statements as to the regular or monstrous organiza- 

 tion of the flowers of the vine, it will be easy to explain the principal 

 physiological facts of our subject. 



The flowers of the cultivated vine seem to be all hermaphrodite. 

 Perhaps, indeed, nearly the whole of them are so, although a very 

 great number of the flowers of a bunch regularly fall without setting 

 and, especially, without ripening fruits. The habitual abortion of a 

 large proportion of the fruits, and the incomplete development of 

 many others, depend less, no doubt, upon the state of the organs of 

 fecundation than upon the preponderance early acquired by the 

 young fruit situated at the extremity of each branch of the thyrsus. 

 These young fruits serve to starve their neighbours, and sooner or 

 later bring on their atrophy. 



There are, nevertheless, cases in which, in flowers apparently well 

 formed, the anthers, whiter than usual, prove to be empty of pollen. 

 These flowers, which have become female by the imperfection of their 

 stamina, sometimes accompany the ordinary or hermaphrodite 

 flowers. Here, therefore, we have polygamy with excess of pistils 

 (or, if it be preferred, imperfection of stamina) in some flowers. 



In other cases a very great number of ovaries set and pass into the 

 state of fruit, but furnish grapes of very small size and destitute of 

 seeds. These grapes are called milleranda (probably from mille 

 grana). An imperfect fecundation has developed only the pericarp, 

 leaving the ovules in a rudimentary state. We shall recur hereafter 

 to the characters of this imperfect development of the fruit. 



This is the place to indicate some remarkable peculiarities of the 

 flowering of the Lambrusques, or wild vines, which occur iu such 



