298 DICECIOUS AND CHAP. VII. 



informs me that I. opaca, which represents in the United 

 States our common holly, appears (judging from dried 

 flowers) to be in a similar state; and so it is, accord- 

 ing to Vaucher, with several other but not with all the 

 species of the genus. 



Gyno-dicecious Plants. 



The plants hitherto described either show a tendency 

 to become dioecious, or apparently have become so 

 within a recent period. But the species now to be 

 considered consist of hermaphrodites and females 

 without males, and rarely show any tendency to 

 be dioecious, as far as can be judged from their 

 present condition and from the absence of species 

 having separated sexes within the same groups. 

 Species belonging to the present class, which I have 

 called gyno-dicecious, are found in various widely 

 distinct families; but are much more common in the 

 Labiatae (as has long been noticed by botanists) than 

 in any other group. Such cases have been noticed by 

 myself in Tliymus serpyllum and vulgaris, Satureia 

 liortensis, Origanum vulgare, and Mentha hirsuta; and 

 by others in Nepeta glechoma, Mentha vulgaris and 

 aquatica, and Prunella vulgaris. In these two latter 

 species the female form, according to H. Miiller, is in- 

 frequent. To these must be added Dracocephalum 

 Moldavicum, Melissa officinalis and clinipodium, and 

 Hyssopus officinalis.* In the two last-named plants the 



*H. Miiller, 'Die Befrnchtung and Lecoq were mistaken in think- 



der Blumen,' 1873; and 'Nature,' ing that several of the plants 



1873, p. 161. Vaucher, ' Plantes named in the text are dioecious. 



d'Europe,' torn. iii. p. 611. For They appear to have assumed that 



Dracocephalum, Schimper, as the hermaphrodite form was a 



quoted by Braun, ' Annals and male ; perhaps they were deceived 



Mag. of Nat. Hist.' 2nd series, vol. by the pistil not becoming fully 



xviii. 1856, p. 380. Lecoq, 'Geo- developed and of proper length 



graphic Bot. del'Europe,' tom.viii. until some time after the anthers 



pp. 33, 38, 44, &c. Both Vaucher have dehisced. 



