268 PHYSIOLOGICAL BOTANY. 



PIETRO SAVI on the Prickles of Amaranthus spinosus. 

 Giorn. Encicl. Ann., 1, t. i, pp. 17, 310. The author 

 considers that these prickles are not stipules, as has been 

 thought, but that they are the lowermost, early-developed 

 leaves of an axillary branch. The author's view is per- 

 fectly correct ; they are situated in the axil of the leaf, 

 low down on the axillary branch, and the main proof 

 consists in their producing tufts of flowers in their axils, 

 which is never the case with stipules. It would be very 

 remarkable were stipules to occur in one species of 

 Amaranthus when they are not found in any other, nor in 

 genera related to it. 



On the Tendrils of the CucurbitacecB. By ATTILIO 

 TASSI. Giorn. Encicl. A. 1, t. i, P. 2, p. 382. In op- 

 position to the view that they are stipules. His view is 

 principally founded upon the instance of Sicyos Buderoa 

 Hook., the alternate leaves of which are furnished on one 

 side below the base with either one, three or six filaments, 

 three or four only of which in the latter case acquire com- 

 plete development. The author also alludes to the remarks 

 made upon them at the Italian Scientific Congresses. 

 Auguste St. Hilaire (Memoir, d. Musee, t. ix, p. 192), 

 whom the author does not mention, is the authority for 

 their being considered as stipules. He quotes an instance 

 of Ulaterium, and a case of abnormal development of 

 Cucurbita Pepo, which had produced stipules instead of 

 tendrils. On this point I have remarked, in my * Ele- 

 ments of Philosophical Botany/ vol. i, pp. 318-9, "But 

 the so-called stipules in the Gourd were furnished at the 

 point with a small tendril ; hence the tendril (as is fre- 

 quently the case with spines) had produced leaves. 

 This minute tendril appears to be absorbed in Elaterium ; 

 for the true stipules never arise from one side only of a 

 leaf; they are very rarely stalked, and the stalk when 

 present is never round, as the tendril is almost invariably. 

 The tendril, which is now the subject in question, is also 

 situated close to the branch like the spine, and is also a 

 supernumerary branch." 



