474 Miscellaneous. 



On the Varieties of Indris and Propithecus. 

 By Dr. J. E. Geay, F.E.S. &c. 



A series of specimens of lemurs have arrived from Madagascar. 

 The examination of them has confirmed the idea that I expressed in 

 a paper sent to the Zoological Society, that these animals are liable 

 to considerable variation, and that the presumed species of the genera 

 Indris and Propithecus are mere varieties of colour. 



•The British Museum has lately received an adult Indris, which, 

 instead of being black with a white patch on the hinder part of the 

 back and a black tail, has a patch over each eyebrow, the fore legs 

 nearly to the hands, the hinder part of the thighs, the legs from 

 the knee to the ankle, and the whole of the underside iron-grey — that 

 is to say, having a very large quantity of whitish hairs intermixed 

 with the black ones ; the ankles and hinder part of the heels white, 

 and yellow below. The variety may be named Indris variegatus. 



The British Museum has also received a fine adult specimen of the 

 animal called Propithecus diadema, which differs from the three other 

 specimens in the British Museum in having a greyish black in- 

 stead of the white forehead that is to be found in the three other 

 specimens. 



OnPeloric Structures. By Dr. Peyeitsch. 



In this paper, types of peloric structures in Labiatae, Verbenaceae, 

 Scrophulariaceoe, and Ranunculacese were described in detail, and the 

 peculiarities which each of these families presents in its peloric 

 structures were discussed. With regard to the Labiatse, the author 

 endeavoured to show that the prevailing theory upon the structure 

 of the Labiate flower is not tenable. Upon the hypothesis that with 

 the first three whorls of flower-leaves an equal number of whorl- 

 members must be assumed as originally present, the structure of the 

 Labiate flower indicates changes which have taken place in the num- 

 ber of the flower-leaves. The prevailing theory explains the number 

 of the anthers by the complete abortion of the fifth anther ; but 

 changes in the number of the whorl-members of the calyx and corolla 

 may also have taken place, and the number of the anthers may indi- 

 cate the original type. 



The author expressed himself in favour of the latter alternative. 

 The preponderant occurrence of quaternary types in the apical and 

 lateral regular flowers is, in his opinion, in contradiction to the 

 assumption of the quinary type. In zygomorphie flower-structures 

 anomalies in the number of anthers often occur ; but those are most 

 rare in which a posterior anther appear«i. The assumption of a qua- 

 ternary type has, moreover, the advantage of simplicity, and the 

 number and position of the flower-leaves then stand in connexion 

 with the position of the leaves and bracts, which only in the rarest 

 cases depart from the cruciformly opposite position. — Anzeiger der 

 hais. Alad. der Wiss. in Wien, October 24, 1872, p. 161. 



