CHAP. VIL POLYGAMOUS PLANTS. 397 



female forms amounted to 20 per cent, of the speci- 

 mens received from one locality in Maine; but all 

 the fruiting specimens belonged to the first form. 

 (3) Style long, as in No. 1, but with stigma imperfect, 

 stamens perfect. (4) Style shorter than in the last, 

 stigma imperfect, stamens perfect. These two latter 

 forms are evidently males. Therefore, as Asa Gray 

 remarks, " the flowers may be classified into two 

 kinds, each with two modifications; the two main kinds 

 characterised by the nature and perfection of the stig- 

 ma, along with more or less abortion of the stamens; 

 their modifications, by the length of the style." Mr. 

 Meehan has described * the extreme variability of 

 the corolla and calyx in this plant, and shows that it 

 is dioscious. It is much to be wished that the pollen- 

 grains in the two male forms should be compared, 

 and their fertilising power tried on the two female 

 forms. 



Ilex aquifolium (Aquifoliaceae). In the several 

 works which I have consulted, one author alone f says 

 that the holly is direcious. During several years I have 

 examined many plants, but have never found one that 

 was really hermaphrodite. I mention this genus because 

 the stamens in the female flowers, although quite des- 

 titute of pollen, are but slightly arjd sometimes not at 

 all shorter than the perfect stamens in the male flowers. 

 In the latter the ovary is small and the pistil is almost 

 aborted. The filaments of the perfect stamens adhere 

 for a greater length to the petals than in the female 

 flowers. The corolla of the latter is rather smaller 

 than that of the male. The male trees produce a 

 greater number of flowers than the females. Asa Gray 



* "Variations in Epicjxa re wns," t Vanch*r, 'Hist. Phys. des 



' Proc. Acid. Nat. Soc. of Phila- Plantes d'Europe,' 1841, torn. ii. 



delphia,' May 1868, p. 153. p. 11. 

 21 



