Miscellaneous, 159 



ment of the raceme in the Futnarieae with regular flowers furnishes 

 us with no explanation of this circumstance, although it is different. 

 But I have ascertained that the development of the spurs commences 

 late in these plants, when the elongation of the raceme has separated 

 the flowers from each other ; no lateral compression is then possible, 

 and the two spurs are freely developed, perfectly equal, and regularly 

 symmetrical. 



Lastly, in support of these views, I may add an observation 

 which appears to be still more demonstrative. The primitive, regu- 

 lar form of the flowers of Fumariese, which subsequently become 

 irregular, is sometimes persistent. In the arboretum of the Botanic 

 Gardens at Nancy I have for three years observed eighteen plants of 

 Corydalis solida with all the flowers peloriate ; these have hitherto 

 proved completely barren, although the pollen appears to be normal, 

 and abundantly impregnates the two lips of the stigma. 



These peloriate flowers are erect and a little spread out ; in form, 

 size, and coloration they resemble those of Dielytra formosa ; so 

 that this anomaly represents the normal type of a genus of the same 

 family. The sepals are small and regular. The corolla presents 

 two perfectly equal lateral spurs, which are conical, obtuse, slightly 

 divergent, and 2 millim. in length — that is to say, much shorter than 

 the single spur of the irregular flower of the same species ; the nec- 

 taries are equal, short, and bent into a hook. The two outer petals, 

 which bear them, are symmetrical ; and this is also the case with the 

 internal petals. The two bundles of stamina are arranged normally. 

 The flowers persist for a longer period than in the type, as is also 

 the case in sterile hybrids. 



To what is this return to the regular type due ? In order to in- 

 vestigate its causes, I dug up, on the 10th February, 1864, two speci- 

 mens of these plants which were still buried in the soil, and compared 

 them with other individuals of the same species, but with irregular 

 flowers. The latter already presented their single spur pretty well 

 developed ; the peloriate flowers, on the contrary, presented no trace 

 of a spur. On other plants, I have followed the gradual development 

 of the flowers ; and it was only on the 16th March, when the stem 

 had issued from the earth, the raceme had become free from its 

 spathiform envelope, and the perfectly free flowers could no longer 

 undergo any compression, that the spurs began to be developed. 

 Thus, in this peloriate flower, the same things take place as in the 

 genera of Fumariese with normally regular flowers. 



Hence it appears to be evident that the lateral compression of the 

 base of one of the margins of the flower at the moment of the deve- 

 lopment of the nectaries must be the cause of the abortion of one of 

 those organs, and of the spur in which it is enclosed ; from this 

 arises the irregularity of the flower. — Comptes Rendus, December 19, 

 1864, p. 1039. 



Note on Sternotheerus Adansonii/rom West Africa, 

 By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S., &c. 



On the 26th of May last year I read a paper before this Society 



