Miscellaneous. 65 



intermaxillary is much longer than the length of the intermaxil- 

 lary. 



In some skulls the nasal bones are the same length as the upper 

 suture of the frontal one, as in C. natalensis, C. sylvicultrix, and C. 

 Ogilbyi. In C. altifrons, according to Dr. Peters' s figure, they are 

 shorter. In C. coronatus and C. rufilatus they are much shorter — 

 only about two-thirds the length. In one skull of C. Grimmius they 

 are longer, and in another skull shorter, and in C. longiceps much 

 longer. 



The above observations are made only on a few, sometimes only on 

 one specimen of the species ; and when I have three or four speci- 

 mens of the same species, as is the case with C. Grimmius, the skulls 

 present some variations in the form of the nasal bones and in the 

 length of the intermaxillaries as above noted. 



Dr. Peters figures as the skull of a young female of C. altifrons 

 a skull of a very different form from that of the skull with the horns 

 of the male above referred to. I have not observed such a difference 

 in the skulls of the females of any of the species of Cephalophus that 

 have occurred to me. I have some doubt if it does belong to the 

 same species, as the figure of the young female animal is very like 

 the skull of a female C. Grimmius, which is an animal that has ascend- 

 ing horns in the male. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



On the Pollen-grains of Ranunculus arvensis. 

 By George Gulliver, F.R.S. 



Finding, on reference to my note-book entries (of no less than five 

 different examinations in the course of four years), that the pollen- 

 grains of Ranunculus arvensis always appeared to differ remarkably 

 from those of its British allies, I have recently examined the pollen 

 of these plants again. The difference now to be described appears 

 so constant and remarkable as to deserve a place in the descriptions 

 of this species. 



The examinations include all the British yellow-flowered Ranun- 

 culeae with divided leaves, except B. parviflorus. This species I 

 have not seen growing. All the others are as common about Eden- 

 bridge as elsewhere. Even R. hirsutus, which Prof. Babington 

 marks "Waste land and corn-fields, rare," grows abundantly in 

 patches in some of our lanes or by-roads ; but happily the very 

 noxious weed R. arvensis scarcely intrudes into pastures, though it 

 is a sad pest in some of our stiff arable land, and too well known to 

 our husbandmen under the name of the " hedgehog." 



The pollen of each species was repeatedly compared in the same 

 stage of development — a necessary precaution, the neglect of which 

 has too often led to perplexing discrepancies in botanical descriptions. 

 In the following measurements the average sizes only are mentioned, 

 as made from the pollen shaken out of the anthers on to a dry piece 

 of glass, and viewed by transmitted light. 



Ann. ^ Mag. Nat. Hist. Ser. 3. Fo/.xvi. 5 



