1858.] FERTILIZATION OF IMPERFECT FLOWERS. 617 



Allow me to take this opportunity of answering another ques- 

 tion. In your excellent ' Alanual of British Plants ' you ask if 

 Anagallis arvensis and coerulea are ever found growing together. 

 I cannot say how the case may be in England^ as I have never 

 found the latter there in a wild state, but in the part of Belgium 

 (the banks of the Meuse) where I have resided for several years, 

 they grow plentifully together on the limestone; on the shale 

 that composes great part of our rocks, I have never met with A, 

 ccerulea. H. C, 



On the FerUlization of Incompltte Flowers of some species of^iola. 

 Comnumicated by Daniel Mullek, of Ujjsal.* 



It is well known that several species of the Viola tribe bloom 

 during the summer with incomplete {kronen-blattlos) flov/ers, 

 and yet bear seeds plentifully. 



It occurred to me to fertilize a Viola elatior before it came to 

 maturity, with the pollen of Viola tricolor maxima. The first, 

 in good soil, frequently attains an ell or more in height, and I 

 already saw, in fancy, little Viola-tricolor trees, loaded with beauti- 

 ful blossoms. On opening an unexpauded bud, however, to remove 

 the anthers, I was surprised by a peculiar arrangement. I found 

 only two stamens, the others being scarcely indicated. The pistil, 

 v/hich in perfect flowers rises 2 millim. above the anthers, was 

 here bent down, so that the stigma touched the upper end of the 

 pollen-sac (anther-lobes), and the leaf- like prolongation of the 

 filament, peculiar to the Viola family, was bent over the pistil. 

 When I cut the filaments at their base, they remained hanging 

 to the stigma, as if they had grown to it. In smaller or younger 

 buds I did not observe this union, and therefore concluded that, 

 in the former, fertilization had already taken place ; in others, 

 which had been longer fertilized, and in which the fruit had 

 already acquired from 2 to 4 millim. in length, the little sta- 

 mens were still hanging to the stigma; they were detached at 

 the base. All this induced me to make further observations on 

 the buds of this Viola, and I ascertained, with only a slight mag- 

 nifying power, that just before fertilization the anthers certainly 

 did contain small grains, but they had not the appearance of or- 

 dinary "pollen-grains, being rather like little round ovules ; they 



* Translated from an article in the ' Botanische Zeitvmg,' for October 23, 1857. 

 N. S. VOL. II. 4 K 



